358 ANIMAL LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND 



Zealand — the " tuatara " or Sphenodon — entered its area 

 at a still earlier stage of surface change. That creature 

 (only 20 in. long) is the only living representative of very 

 remarkable extinct reptiles which lived in the area which 

 now is England, and, in fact, in all parts of the visprld, 

 during the Triassic period, further behind the chalk in 

 date than the chalk is behind our own day. For ages, 

 this " type," with its peculiar beak-like jaws, has survived 

 only in New Zealand. Living specimens have been 

 brought to this country, and are to be seen at the Zoo- 

 logical Gardens in Regent's Park. Having received, as it 

 were, a small cargo of birds and reptiles, but no hairy, 

 warm-blooded quadruped, no mammal, New Zealand 

 became at the end of the chalk^period detached from the 

 nortiiern continent, and isolated, and has remained so ever 

 since. Migratory birds from the north: visited it, and at a 

 late date two kinds of bat reached it and established 

 themselves. 



Thus we are prepared for the very curious state ot 

 things in this large tract of land. Looking at New 

 Zealand as it was a thousand years ago, we find there 

 were no mammals living on it excepting a couple of bats 

 and the seals (so-called sea lions, sea elephants, and 

 others) which frequent its coasts. There were 1 80 species 

 of birds, and many of these quite peculiar to the : island. 

 Many of the birds showed in the absence of any predatory 

 enemies — ^there being no carnivorous quadrupeds to hurft 

 them or their voung — a tendency to lose the power 

 of flight, and some had done so altogether. The gigantic, 

 wingless Moas — allied to the ostrich and the cassowary-— 

 had grown up there, and were the masters of the situation. 

 There were many species of these — one of great height 

 — one fourth taller than the biggest known ostrich^; 

 others with short legs of nlonstrdus thickness and strength. 

 Allied to these are the; four species of Kiwi or aptery:?, 



