604 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
and of a mouse colour ; one of the seamen, and he who had 
the best view of it, said it had a bushy tail, and was the most 
like a jackall of any animal he knew; the most probable con- 
jecture is, that it is a new species ; be this as it may, we 
are now certain that this country is not so destitute of quad- 
rupeds as was once thought/”* This account has recently 
been confirmed by reports from the neighbourhood of 
Wakatipu Lake. It is probable, therefore, that there is 
another, which is known to the natives by the name of hau- 
rehe, but it is of a very retired character, and extremely rare. 
The same may be said of a beaver rat which has occasionally 
been met with. But leaving these semi-apocryphal animals 
for the future naturalist to describe, we now proceed to the 
consideration of the known fauna. 
New Zealand possesses two kinds of bat ; the vespertilio 
tuberculatus , a very small one, yellowish brown, with di- 
minutive rounded ears, it is found in every part of these 
islands. There is also a larger one in Cook's Straits, but it 
has not been described, the general Maori name for both is 
pekapeka. The mus rattus, More, is not above half the size 
of the imported rat, which has nearly exterminated it. Once 
it was very abundant and greatly prized as an article of food, 
it chiefly fed on the mast of the tawai betula nigra, more 
generally known as the black birch ; there is also a smaller 
variety, black, with a short tail, terminated with a little tuft 
of hair, a third larger than the common mouse ; the English, 
or rather Norway rat, is called by the natives pouhawaiki, 
More pakeha, and kainga rua, it is now very numerous. 
The New Zealand dog, canis familiaris kuri, was small and 
long haired, of a dirty white or yellow color, with a bushy 
tail, this the natives state they brought with them when they 
first came to these islands, it is not improbable, however, 
that they found another kind already in the country, brought 
by the older Melanesian race, of a larger size, with long 
white hair and black tail, it is said to have been very quiet 
and docile, and was known by the name pataka tawhiti, but 
both these are now quite lost in the host of introduced ones. 
* Cook's Voyages , vol. i, page 380. Smith & Elder. 
