GENERAL ZOOLOGY. 



a pest. Writing in 1870, jMr. E. S. Hill says,* "Mice within the past 

 two years have accidentally been introduced. They now swarm 

 the island, and threaten to become a great nuisance ; they have taten 

 to the fields and burrow in every knoll." To show the remarkable 

 manner in which this little rodent has diftused itself over Lord Howe, 

 ■we were informed by Mr. W. Nichols that it had been found 

 under the precipitous wall towards the summit of Mount Ledgbird. 

 Babbits formerly existed on Eabbit or Groat Island, the small islet in the 

 Lagoon, but they appear to have died out. From a remark made by the 

 writer just quoted — " there are a few rabbits, which fortunately are confined 

 to a small island on the west side, between the shore and the reef" — they 

 do not appear to have gained a footing on the main islaoid. 



It is a remarkable fact, when we take into consideration the extent of 

 cover and the general physical features, that the indigenous mammalian 

 fauna is practically none. It is one of the strongest arguments in support 

 of the relation of the fauna at large to that of New Zealand, as against its 

 Australian affinities, where the only undoubted indigenous mammals are 

 bats ! This comparative absence of the highest forms of animal life is again 

 instanced in the case of the Sandwich Islands. Since the advent of the 

 first settlers, pigs, goats, and the domestic cat have been introduced and 

 lapsed into a natural state. Mr. Campbell Stevens, the Postmaster at Lord 

 Howe, and a very intelligent natural history observer, says that the original 

 eat, which took to the bush, was black, but cats of that colour have 

 entirely disappeared, whilst those met with wild in the hills at present are 

 the descendants of the variety now domesticated there, and in which the 

 black colour does not predominate. Mr. Hill says : " In the olden time, 

 twenty-four years back, a number of cats were sent ashore from a whale 

 ship and turned adrift. These soon became populous, and found an easy 

 prey in the pigeons, parrots, birds like a guinea-fowl, and brown hens, 

 decimating the former and driving the latter to the mountains. These cats 

 are still juimerous, and all blaek."t Groats and swine formerly roamed over 

 the whole island, but both are now largely decreased in number,^ not so 

 much from hunting, we were told, as from a cause, the explanation of which 

 is not at first apparent. It seems, however, that the breed of neither has been 

 to any extent altered by the introduction of fresh blood, and it is more 

 than probable that deterioration has arisen from the consequent inter- 

 breeding of individuals confined within a limited area. The goats are 

 restricted to che mountainous ground of Mounts Grower and Ledgbird in 

 the south, and the North llidge at the opposite end of the island, the 

 respective herds remaining separate from one another. Their activity is 

 very remarkable, as shown by the manner in which they ascend and descend 

 the' almost perpendicular faces of the cliffs. We observed the ease with 

 which this is accomplished on the sea-face of the North Eidge, when on our 

 cruise to the Admiralty Inlets, where a small party, feeding on some grassy 

 ledges close to the water's edge, on the approach of the boat, zig-zaged their 

 upward course from ledge to ledge, and point to point, until the brow of the 

 cliff was reached, and they disappeared over to the less precipitous land side. 

 The swine are now confined to the southern end of the island, especially on 

 the slopes of Mount Ledgbird. Now and then fine animals are produced, 

 boars, we were told by Mr. Gt. Nichols, at times reaching 200 lb., but the 

 average all round weight is lOOlh. During an excursion to the high ground 

 about Erskine Valley, and on another occasion, when on our way to 



* Hill's Lord Howe Island, loc, cit., p. 46. 

 t Hill's Lord Home Island, loc. cit., p. 46. 



