4 
944 Transactions.—Miscellaneous. 
improbable that the same dogs were both highly prized domestic pets and 
also used for food. Among the Sandwich Islanders the dog, was up to late 
years, carefully fed and fattened for food, the best quality, called iliopoli, 
being fed on taro, and when young suckled by the women at the expense of 
their infants. But these dogs were not petted or treated as intelligent com- 
panions, or prized for their sagacity, as I undersiand the Maori dogs were. 
Any information respecting this extinct breed of Maori dogs has there- 
fore an ethnological value, and I have this evening to bring before the 
society an interesting contribution on the subject by Captain Rowan. 
Before describing his discovery, which relates to probably the earliest 
remains of the dog yet found in New Zealand, I will shortly refer to the 
only specimens, supposed to be genuine, of this breed which I have been 
able to examine, and which were probably among the last survivors of the 
race. 
A bitch and full-grown pup were known for several years in the densely 
wooded country between Waikava and the Mataura plains, and did great 
damage among the flocks of sheep, but exhibited such cunning and daring 
that it was not till after hunting them for two years that they were shot by 
Mr. Anderson, who presented them to the Colonial Museum. Of the smaller 
specimen both skin and skeleton were taken to the British Museum by Sir 
George Grey, and the skin of the mother was preserved here, and has been 
recognized by many old Maoris as a genuine kuri or ancient Maori dog. 
In general appearance it resembles a poodle, but it presents characters 
unlike any other of the many breeds of dogs with which we are familiar. 
It is a large bodied dog with slender limbs, large ears, and a straight 
half-brushed tail, wide head, and small pointed nose. Its colour is white, 
with a black spot on the loins, and a brown spot on the crown of the head, 
and a few faint spots on the ears. Its nose is black and its claws are white, 
The back is covered with hair about one and a quarter inch in length, 
laid smoothly, but the lower surface of the tail, rump, back, legs and ears, 
and the belly have long rough hair. The total length is three feet. 
The height of the shoulder is seventeen inches, the height of the fore- 
leg being ten inches, and the depth of the chest ten inches ; the ears are 
four inches, and the tail is thirteen inches long. 
The skull, which is the only part of the skeleton preserved, proves it to 
have been a very old individual, the canines being worn down to their 
stumps, and the processes and ridges of the cranium strongly developed. 
On this account it is perhaps all the more valuable for comparison with the 
skull found by Captain Rowan, which belonged to a young individual, as it 
