440 AUSTEALASIA. 



and tailless, of which three or four species still survive. Being covered with a hair- 

 like plumage, and as large as an average fowl, the kiwi is helpless against dogs, 

 and would soon be exterminated even in the remoter districts but for its nocturnal 

 habits. But it must nevertheless disappear, as analogous species have disappeared 

 in the Mascarenhas Islands, and as in New Zealand itself have disappeared the 

 fifteen varieties of the moa (f/iitorn/s), a bird of varying size belonging to the ostrich 

 family. The fossil remains of the moa, one species of which was over 10 feet high, 

 have been discovered in the bogs beneath alluvial deposits and in caves encrusted 

 with stalagmites. But skeletons have also been found, as well as an enormous egg 

 10 inches long, besides fragments of skin and feathers, in the Maori graves and 

 amongst the kitchen refuse. Hence there can be no doubt that the natives hunted 

 these birds, which were doomed by their defenceless state to rapid extinction. 

 According to the local tradition the moas were decked with a brilliant plumage. 



Amongst the tj^es in course of extinction or already gone, are included the 

 mo/to {notornù), the coturnix, a sort of quail remarkable as the only indigenous 

 representative of the gallinaceous family, the anarhynchus, distinguished by the 

 lateral twist of its beak, the fhiitornis, another bird of the same group, and the kea 

 (nestor), an owl-like parrot still common in the lower valleys, where it is much 

 dreaded by the farmers since it has acquired a taste for the flesh of sheep and lambs. 



Since the arrival of the British settlers the gaps made in the local fauna have 

 been gradually filled up by new wild and domestic species. Sportsmen have 

 introduced the deer, roebuck, hare, and rabbit, of which the last named has proved 

 specially disastrous to the prospects of agriculture. The pig has reverted to the 

 wild state in some districts, and thousands are now annually killed in the thickets. 

 The streams have also been stocked, chiefly with salmon, trout, and other species 

 from the mother country. But the extinct forms of bird life have been replaced 

 mainly from Australia, Europe, and America. Thus the indigenous quail has 

 been succeeded by the Californian variety, which has multiplied to a surprising 

 extent, and by the grey partridge and pheasant from China. Starlings, sparrows, 

 blackbirds, thrushes, crows, larks, finches, introduced at great cost from England, 

 have become acclimatised, and often produce on the colonist the impression that 

 he has scarcely changed his home in migrating to the Austral world. He 

 finds himself surrounded by fields, woodlands, buildings similar to those of the old 

 country ; he meets the same wild and tame animals, and hears the same birds 

 warbling in the thickets. 



Inhahita>ts of New Zealand. 



The natives found in the archipelago by the white immigrants compare their 

 destiny to that of the indigenous plants and animals, and believe themselves 

 doomed to perish with them. " Our rat," they say, "is eaten by the European 

 rat ; our fly yields to yours, and we ourselves will be replaced by you." Yet these 

 Maori, who thus foresee their extinction, were amongst the most intelligent, the 

 noblest, and most cultured Polynesian peoples. If their disappearance is 

 inevitable, it must still be regarded as a common calamity for mankind. 



