Meeson. — On a Plague of Rats. 



199 



sessile, tenth sucker in row largest, gradually diminishing both ways ; those 

 on dorsal arms about ■§• larger than those on ventral arms. The suckers 

 vary in number from 138 pairs on the longest arms to 110 on the shortest, 

 while the male organ is furnished with only 52 pairs. Colour : Above dark 

 steel grey, blotched irregularly with pale grey, almost black round the eyes. 

 Below pale grey, blotches smaller and less numerous. 



Measurements. 





Feet. 



Inches 



Length of body and head . . 



.. 1 



1 



„ dorsal sessile arms 



.. 3 







„ ventral ,, 



.. 2 







„ hectocotylus 



.. 1 



6 



„ other sessile arms 



.. 2 



9 



Circumference of body 



.. 1 



5 



Diameter of eyes 



.. 



0-5 



,, largest dorsal sucker 



... 



1-3 



„ „ ventral sucker . . 



.. 



0-9 



. Blind Bay, Nelson. 







Akt. XXII. — The Plague of Rats in Nelson and Marlborough. 

 By John Meeson, B.A. 

 [Read before the Nelson Philosophical Society, 6th December, 1884.] 

 The plague of rats from which we at present are and have been now for 

 some months past suffering has features which merit more than a passing 

 notice from a Society having for one of its principal objects the discovery, 

 corroboration, and classification of fresh facts in natural history. The 

 magnitude of the plague is the subject of ordinary conversation. Nelson 

 and Marlborough — in other words, the whole of the extreme northern por- 

 tion of the South Island of New Zealand — is enduring a perfect invasion. 

 Living rats are sneaking in every corner, scuttling across every path ; their 

 dead bodies in various stages of decay, and in many cases more or less 

 mutilated, strew the roads, fields, and gardens, pollute the wells and streams, 

 in all directions. Whatever kills the animals does not succeed in materially 

 diminishing their numbers. Fresh battalions take the place of those 

 slaughtered. Young and succulent crops, as of wheat and peas, are so 

 ravaged as to be unfit for and not worth the trouble of cutting and har- 

 vesting. A young farmer the other day killed with a stout stick two 

 hundred of the little rodents in a couple of hours in his wheat field. 

 Plainly, the settler, for this season at all events, in addition to parroquets 



