38 MAMMALIA 



was wrecked on the Auckland Islands in 1865, found no traces of wild 

 pigs, however. More recently Captain Bollons of the 'Hinemoa,' 

 and others have landed and liberated pigs. Hooker reported them 

 as feeding chiefly on Pleurophyllum criniferum, while McCormick, who 

 was surgeon on the ' Erebus,' states they fed on Stilbocarpa polaris. 

 Waite, writing in 1909, says : 



There can be small doubt that the introduction of pigs to the Auckland 

 Islands has already resulted in considerable havoc among the ground- 

 nesting birds, by destroying both eggs and young. Traces of pigs were 

 very plentiful, not only their spoor but their rootings also being abundantly 

 apparent. Native plants are also suffering, for we found whole patches 

 turned over, Bulhinella and Pleurophyllum evidently being favourites. On 

 several occasions we came across the pigs themselves, but they were very 

 wild and were approached with difficulty. Of four seen on one occasion, 

 one was black, two white, and one pied. One of them was shot, and proved 

 to be a lean, long-legged, and long-snouted animal, apparently reverting 

 to the characteristics of a wild type. 



In 1865 Captain Norman liberated three pigs on Campbell Island, 

 but they appear to have died off. 



Dr Cockayne informs me that in the Chatham Islands, the 

 magnificent forget-me-not, known as the Chatham Island lily {Myoso^ 

 tidium nobile), formerly grew commonly as a coastal plant, forming a 

 fringe of vegetation round the islands, but that it has been nearly 

 exterminated by wild pigs — aided in part by wild cattle — so that 

 it is now found only in inaccessible spots. They have also helped to 

 reduce the number of plants and nearly exterminate Aciphylla 

 Traversii, one of the most characteristic plants of the Chatham 

 Islands, by digging it up and eating the succulent tap-root. Formerly 

 two species of spear-grass — Aciphylla squarrosa and ^. Colensoi — ^were 

 extremely abundant, especially in the South Island. Vast quanti- 

 ties of these plants were grubbed out by the wild pigs, which are 

 particularly fond of their succulent and aromatic root-stocks and 

 roots. 



Aston states that they eat down Gaya Lyallii. They root up the 

 ground wherever the bracken fern {Pteris aquilina, var. esculenta) is 

 found, the starchy rhizomes furnishing abundant food. They are also 

 especially fond of the thick root-stocks of spear-grasses {Aciphylla) and 

 other umbelliferous plants, such as Ligusticum and Angelica. 



In some parts of New Zealand wild pigs are destructive to sheep. 

 I am informed that in North Canterbury an old boar has been seen 

 to come down from his hill fastness into a paddock in which were a 

 number of ewes, charge into the midst of them, and kill two of them, 

 "seemingly," said my informant, "more out of mischief than for 



