64 MAMMALIA 



Captain Musgrave, who was a castaway from the schooner 

 'Grafton' when she was wrecked on the Auckland Islands in 1864, 

 found a cat in a trap, more than a year after the date of the wreck. 

 " She soon cleared the hut of mice, which were dreadfully common."^ 



In 1868, H. H. Travers in his account of a visit to the Chatham 

 Islands states that wild cats were very abundant, and that they had 

 destroyed a great number of the indigenous birds. Mr F. A. D. Cox, 

 writing to Mr Jas. Drummond in 191 1, from the Chatham Islands, 

 reports that on Mangare, a small island of the group, there is a colony 

 of tortoise-shell cats ; the progeny of some liberated on the island in 

 order to destroy the rabbits which were present in large numbers. 

 He adds : " I do not know whether they have succeeded in killing 

 out the rabbits, but they certainly have exterminated the small native 

 birds." Presumably the Chatham Island Fern-bird (Sphenceacus rufes- 

 cens), which was only found on Mangare, has now ceased to exist. 

 Mr J. Grant of Wanganui informs me that cats frequently catch 

 eels; he has four or five direct observations of the fact (191 8). Cats 

 are also responsible for the destruction of birds and tuataras on 

 Stephen's Island in Cook Strait, where they have exterminated the 

 little wren Traversia Lyalli, peculiar to this island. 



*Dog (Cants familiar is) 



When Captain Cook arrived in New Zealand in 1769, he found 

 that the dog and a species of rat were the only mammals in these 

 islands. The dog had been brought with them by the Maoris, and 

 was similar to the form which was common in Polynesia. Most of 

 the histories of the migrations of the Maori refer to the fact of their 

 bringing dogs with them, so that they had probably been in the country 

 for some centuries before the advent of Europeans. 



Crozet saw them in 1772 and described them as follows: 



The dogs are a sort of domesticated fox, quite black or white, very low 

 on the legs, straight ears, thick tail, long body, full jaws, but more pointed 

 than that of the fox, and uttering the same cry; they do not bark like our 

 dogs. These animals are only fed on fish, and it appears that the savages 

 only raise them for food. Some were taken on board our vessels; but it 

 was impossible to domesticate them like our dogs; they were always 

 treacherous, and bit us frequently. They would have been dangerous to 

 keep where poultry was raised or had to be protected ; they would destroy 

 them just like true foxes. 



Forster, in his account of the second voyage, 1773, writing of 

 Queen Charlotte Sound natives, says: 



"A good many dogs were observed in their canoes, which they seemed 

 very fond of, and kept tied with a string round their middle ; they were of 

 a rough, long-haired sort, with pricked ears, and much resembled the 



