136 Transactions. — 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 

 foUovving note : — " The New Zealand dog (kuri) is a small animal (some- 

 what resemfeling the variety known as the pricked-ear shepherd's cur) 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 iqaost 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 XDig-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 then- 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 Euahine mountain range and the Euataniwha 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 



* Published in " Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science," vol. II., p. 97 ; and in 

 " Annals of Natural History " (London), vol. XIV., p. 93. 



