DESTROYED BY EUROPEANS 361 



according to the same principles into tiie great northern 

 belt of land, the Holarctic region and the (three not equally 

 distinct) great southward-reaching land surfaces — the 

 Neotropical (South America), the Ethiopian (Africa, south 

 of the Sahara), and the Oriental (India and Malay). 



The bird-ruled quietude of New Zealand was disturbed 

 500 years ago by the arrival of the Polynesian Islanders, 

 the Maoris, in their canoes. They brought with them 

 three kinds of vegetables which they cultivated, a dog and 

 a kind of rat. The dogs soon died out, but the rat has 

 remained, and is considered to have done little or no 

 harm. It was not one of the destructive proliferous rats 

 of the northern hemisphere. The Maoris hunted the big 

 birds — the Moas and others — for their flesh, and ate their 

 eggs, and it is probable that they caused or accelerated 

 the extinction of the Moa and two or three other birds. 

 In the north island they nearly exterminated the white 

 heron, the plumes being valued by them. On the whole, 

 very little damage was done to the natural products of the 

 islands by the Maoris. " It was with the advent of the 

 Europeans," says Mr. John Drummond, F.L.S., in his 

 interesting and well-illustrated book on ' The Animals of 

 New Zealand,' "that destruction began in earnest. It 

 seemed as if they had been commanded to destroy the 

 ancient inhabitants.'' They killed right and left, and, in 

 addition, burnt up the primeval forests and bushes till a 

 great part of the flora was consumed. It was never a very 

 varied or strong one, consisting only of some 1 400 species, 

 which are now in large proportion vanishing, whilst 600 

 species of plants, most of them introduced accidentally 

 rather than intentionally by the European settlers, have 

 taken their place. 



Here I may state the great principle which, in regard 

 to plants as well as animals, determines the survival of 

 intruders from one region to another. It appears that 



