186 T'ransactions.— Miscellaneous, 
red feathers which were also singly and firmly fixed by being closely woven 
into a bit of strong flaxen cloth made especially for that purpose. 
To a paper which I wrote on the moa in the year 1842, I added the 
following note:—'* The New Zealand dog (kuri) is a small animal (some- 
what resembling the variety known as the pricked-ear shepherd's eur) with 
erect ears and a flowing tail; its cry is a peculiar kind of whining howl, 
which, when in a state of domestication, it utters in concert at a signal 
given by its master, and it is most unpleasant. This variety of dog has, 
however, become very scarce in consequence of the continued introduction 
of other and larger varieties.”* At that time I supposed that some of 
the many dogs I had seen in my early travels were of the old New Zealand 
or South Sea breed; but, since then, I have had good and ample reasons 
for believing I was mistaken. It was, however, quite possible, or even 
probable, that those dogs alluded to by me in my old note quoted above, 
were mongrel half-breeds, or mixed descendants of the New Zealand and 
the introduced foreign dogs. And it is such dogs or others like them, but 
with still less of the true Maori breed in them, that have deceived later 
enquirers and the early settlers. 
I may also mention that I have both seen and heard wild dogs in the 
forests and on their outskirts when travelling. Those, however, were dogs 
of a different kind—mongrels of various sorts—which had run away from 
their Maori masters, or had stayed behind in the woods when out pig-hunting 
with them, and so by degrees had become wild and increased in number. 
And as pigs were now becoming plentiful in the country, and their flesh 
(almost the natural food of the dog) easily obtained—while in the pas or 
villages those curs were often very badly off—it was no marvel that some 
of those dogs ran away and became wild. I remember particularly being 
beset on two or three occasions by tolerably large packs of those wild dogs, 
between the Ruahine mountain range and the Ruataniwha plains, in the 
years 1846-7. One of those packs were eleven in number, and being 
unarmed, save with my stick, I had some difficulty in keeping them off. I 
was alone too at the time, as my Maori baggage-bearers had lagged behind, 
and my own dog, which was much bigger, would not look at them, but kept 
behind me, which no doubt was one of the causes of their so persistently 
following me up and closing round me. I thought so much of it that I sent 
to England for double-barrelled pistols (revolvers then not being known— 
to me, at least) for a future occasion, as my regular travelling lay in that 
direction and over the mountain range. It was these wild dogs of that 
mongrel kind that did mischief to the flocks of the early settlers 
z : E TERSTEN A 
* Published in “ Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science,” vol. II., p. 97; and in 
* Annals of Natural History " (London), vol. XIV., p. 93. 
