MAMMALS AND BIRDS. 383 
writes a friend to me; “the wool grows rapidly, the 
sheep fatten well, and the ewes breed rapidly, frequently 
having three at a birth, so that we can by-and-by export 
wool as well as cotton. In one of the boxes sent to the 
Exhibition there is some wool of a sheep five months 
old, born on Wakaya, and the property of Dr. Brower.” 
Cats are now quite common, and the natives have taken 
to them in order to kill the mice and rats which Eu- 
ropean vessels have introduced. 
Birds are much more numerous than mammals. I 
have a list of forty-six different species, among them 
parroquets, owls, bitterns, teal, hawks, ducks, pigeons, 
etc. The feathers of some of them are collected for 
ornamental purposes, and the high value set upon the 
Kula (Coriphilus solitarius, Latham) has already been 
noticed. Ducks and pigeons, excellent eating, are very 
abundant, the former about the rivers, the latter in the 
woods. The fowls (Toa*) which the natives had were very 
small, and could scarcely be termed domesticated, in- 
deed they have become perfectly wild in many districts. 
Europeans have introduced better kinds, and also tur- 
keys, but I do not remember seeing any geese. I fancy 
that the domestic ducks must have come to the islands 
early in this century from some Spanish ships. 
* Toa is the Fijian form of the word “ Moa,” applied throughout Poly- 
nesia to domestic fowls, and by the Maoris to the most gigantic extinct 
birds (Dinornis sp. plur.) disentombed in New Zealand. The Polynesian 
term for birds that fly about freely in the air is Manu or Manumanu, and 
the fact that the New Zealanders did not choose one of these, but the one 
implying domesticity and want of free locomotion in the air, would seem a 
proof that the New Zealand Moas were actually seen alive by the Maories, 
about their premises, as stated in their traditions, and have only become 
extinct in comparatively recent times. 
