Produced by F E H, MWS and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
See the Transcriber’s Notes at the end of the book for changes and notes.
Words in italics are marked with _underscores_,
words in bold characters are marked with =equals signs=,
and words in small capitals are shown in UPPER CASE.
NEW ZEALAND BOARD OF SCIENCE AND ART.
MANUAL No. 2.
WILD LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND.
PART I.--MAMMALIA.
BY
Hon. Geo. M. THOMSON, M.L.C., F.L.S., F.N.Z.Inst.
ILLUSTRATED.
[Illustration]
WELLINGTON, N.Z.
BY AUTHORITY: MARCUS F. MARKS, GOVERNMENT PRINTER.
1921.
OTHER WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
THE FERNS AND FERN ALLIES OF NEW ZEALAND. Melbourne, 1882. Out of
print.
INTRODUCTORY CLASS-BOOK OF BOTANY. Wellington, 1891; second edition,
Wellington, 1906.
A NEW ZEALAND NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR. Dunedin, 1909.
THE HISTORY OF THE PORTOBELLO MARINE FISH-HATCHERY. Board of Science
and Art Bulletin No. 2. Wellington. Now in the press.
THE NATURALIZATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS IN NEW ZEALAND. Cambridge
University Press. Now in the press.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Chapter I.--INTRODUCTION.
Chapter II.--MARSUPIALIA: Wallabies and Opossums.
Chapter III.--UNGULATA: Wild Pigs.
Chapter IV.--UNGULATA: Deer.
Chapter V.--UNGULATA: Fallow, Red, and Sambur Deer.
Chapter VI.--UNGULATA: Wild Cattle, Sheep, and Goats.
Chapter VII.--CETACEA: Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises.
Chapter VIII.--CARNIVORA: Cats and Dogs.
Chapter IX.--CARNIVORA: Ferrets, Stoats, and Weasels.
Chapter X.--CARNIVORA: Seals.
Chapter XI.--CHIROPTERA: New Zealand Bats.
Chapter XII.--RODENTIA: Rats.
Chapter XIII.--RODENTIA: Mice and Guinea-pigs.
Chapter XIV.--RODENTIA: Rabbits.
Chapter XV.--RODENTIA: Hares. INSECTIVORA: Hedgehogs.
[Illustration: FALLOW DEER.]
WILD LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND.
PART I.--MAMMALIA.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
In a land which depends to a very large extent on agricultural and
pastoral pursuits and industries some knowledge of the animal and
vegetable life of the country should be taught in every school, and the
love of Nature in all her varied aspects should be inculcated in every
child. The best way of acquiring such knowledge is by observation,
and every child is more or less a naturalist from the start. It has
been said that man is a classificatory animal, and it is wonderful how
most children begin to collect such objects as interest them, and how,
unconsciously, they begin to classify them.
But, hand-in-hand with observational work, a certain amount of
instruction is very helpful, and if the one can work in harmoniously
with the other progress in the knowledge of Nature is greatly
facilitated. Books conveying instruction in botany are common enough,
but those dealing with the rudiments of zoological work in a form
sufficiently attractive to the uninformed reader are by no means
numerous. I do not know of any work dealing with the animals which are
frequently met with in New Zealand, and in the hope of partly supplying
this want I propose to write a few sketches of the wild life of the
country, in which I shall attempt to give some account of those which
are most common. The late Professor Hutton and Mr. James Drummond,
of Christchurch, published some years ago a valuable work entitled
“Animals of New Zealand,” which should be in every school library.
This, besides being rather expensive for most private readers, is a
more or less technical work, and deals only with the higher vertebrate
fauna indigenous to these Islands. Excellent little articles appear
from time to time in the _School Journal_, but these are not readily
procurable.
In all centres of settlement the animal life is almost as much due to
foreign immigration as the people are; but observers cannot tell this
fact without some assistance, and one of the difficulties with which
all embryo naturalists are met is to know which plants and animals are
native and which are introduced. Let me illustrate this.
Living as I do in a suburb of Dunedin, just outside the Town Belt,
I observe in my walks that in this neighbourhood certain species of
birds are very common. They are house-sparrows, blackbirds, thrushes,
starlings, and hedge-sparrows. These are all forms which have been
introduced from Great Britain. Almost as abundant, but more erratic
in their occurrence, are wax-eyes (or twinkies) and goldfinches--the
former a somewhat recent immigrant, apparently from Australia, and
the latter introduced from Britain. Less abundant in varying degree
are grey warblers, tomtits, fan-tailed flycatchers, chaffinches,
greenfinches, an occasional yellowhammer, and a little brown owl. The
first three are natives, the rest are introduced. The native bell-bird
(or korimako) visits the gardens from time to time, especially when
the trees are in flower; while occasionally in the outlying districts
one hears or sees a tui or a morepork: these are all natives. In the
more open country introduced skylarks are common, as are the native
ground-larks, or pipits. On the seashore are numerous species of birds,
but these are all indigenous species. On still nights one often hears
the black swans flying overhead in their migrations from one sheet of
water to another: these were introduced from Western Australia.
About the house are occasionally a few mice, and in town brown rats
are common. These are not kept in check by the dogs and cats which
are common in many houses. During the nights hedgehogs roam about the
gardens, and are far more common than unobservant people have any
notion of. All these and the other mammals met with, such as horses and
cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and rabbits, were originally introduced,
mostly from Britain.
When I go to work in the garden I turn up numerous earthworms, nearly
all belonging to introduced species--unless I start to trench in new
ground, when I come on native species. The wood-lice are introduced; so
are the earwigs, which are so common in the north end of Dunedin; so
are all the slugs and snails. The bees and humble-bees are introduced,
as are the large drone-flies which visit so many of our flowers in
autumn and early winter. Nearly all the plants in our fields, orchards,
and gardens, cultivated ones and weeds alike, are of foreign origin; so
are the aphides and scale insects which infest them. The flies which
infest our houses and carry dirt and disease in all directions are
foreigners; so are the borers which destroy our houses and furniture;
and so also are bugs, fleas, and lice, which are harboured in dirty
surroundings.
The question might well be asked, Where do the native species come in?
The answer would have to be that wherever man goes certain species of
animals and plants follow him, and become established if the conditions
are suitable; while another section he either takes with him for their
utility or introduces afterwards for various reasons; and the native
species gradually get pushed out.
Let us consider these two kinds of introductions. The only mammals
in New Zealand which were introduced by man unconsciously are rats
and mice. These accompany man wherever he goes and settles, and
do so very much against his will. All the other forms--horses,
opossums, wallabies, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, deer, dogs, cats,
hares, rabbits, hedgehogs, and guinea-pigs--were introduced of set
purposes. All the introduced birds were also brought to this country
on purpose. So were the introduced fishes--salmon, trout, carp, perch,
tench, turbot, &c. So were the frogs. As we get lower down the scale
of the animal kingdom we find the self-introduced forms increasing
in proportion and number, and those brought in for definite reasons
becoming fewer.
No fewer than twenty-eight species of slugs and snails have been
introduced into the country. Of these, one--a water-snail (_Lymnaea
stagnalis_)--was brought here for the purpose of feeding imported
trout; all the rest were imported among some kind of agricultural
or horticultural produce. The case of the insects is especially
interesting. About 270 species have been introduced. Those kinds
which were first brought for some definite purpose were silkworms,
then honey-bees, and later humble-bees. An unsuccessful attempt
was also made to introduce the cochineal insect. The silkworms,
which are, of course, not wild animals in any sense of the term,
never became established, but they can still be obtained from a few
dealers. The humble-bees were brought here for the special purpose
of fertilizing red clover; and thus obtaining seed from the plants,
instead of having constantly to import seed from abroad. In more recent
years eleven species of insects--mostly ichneumons and ladybirds--have
been introduced by the Department of Agriculture to cope with other
insects which have become pests, the larvae of the former being
parasites in the bodies of their prey, the latter feeding directly
upon aphides. All the other introduced insects--that is, over 250
species--have been brought here unwittingly.
Nineteen species of earthworms have found their way into the country,
most probably among the earth and the roots of introduced plants.
It will thus be seen that wherever people are settled in New Zealand
the greatest number of animals to be met with are immigrants like
themselves. A popular account, therefore, of the wild life of the
country must deal with these introductions, as well as with those
native forms which are still to be met with commonly. This, then,
must be my apology for writing some sort of consecutive account of
the common animals which are now to be found near the haunts of
men, as well as of those which take some finding. Descriptions of
introduced animals are to be obtained only by reading books of natural
history dealing with other countries, or in isolated articles, such
as the useful leaflets issued from time to time by the Department of
Agriculture.
Nearly all children, and a majority of grown-up people as well, are
fond of natural history, and many who have lost the early taste find it
revive when they are brought in contact with it later. I should feel
rewarded if this little book should stimulate the love of nature in any
of its readers, and especially if it would cause a more general desire
for nature-study to spring up in our schools.
The first Europeans who landed in New Zealand and who came to know
something of the animals which were to be met with were those who came
with Captain Cook in his visit here in 1769. They found that the
birds and beasts were very different from those they had known in the
Homeland from which they had come. They also noticed that there were
very few animals or plants which were desirable for food, or which were
likely to furnish food to later arrivals; and Cook was sufficiently
far-seeing to recognize that before long many of his countrymen
would come to these Islands either to visit them or to stay. These
early European voyagers found that the Maoris, whom they met for the
first time, and who were far more numerous than they are now, had no
domestic animals except dogs, which they kept for food. They also found
that a rat was very common in many parts; but they met with no other
four-footed animals, except, probably, lizards.
So Cook and those who followed him thought it would be a good thing
for the country, and for the Europeans who might come later to live in
it, if the best and most useful animals and plants which occurred in
Britain were brought to New Zealand. They were, then, the pioneers in
starting the introduction of European forms by giving the Natives pigs,
goats, fowls, and seeds of several plants. Other animals and plants
were brought here from time to time, and as white people increased
in number, and gradually occupied much of the land and brought it
into cultivation, these introduced forms in certain localities soon
displaced many of the native forms. All the thickly peopled and settled
parts of New Zealand are much more like parts of Europe as far as
animals and plants are concerned than they are like the New Zealand
which Cook knew. The reason is that wherever white men go to settle
they take with them certain animals and plants, which they keep and
cultivate. Besides, as already said, a great many things come into
the new country with the immigrants--things which are not wanted,
perhaps, but which follow white men wherever they go--and these things
frequently become very common. We call the plants “weeds” because they
grow where they are not wanted. But we have no name for the uninvited
animals--mostly small--which thus come into the country, until perhaps
they become very common, and then we just call them “pests”--nasty
hurtful things to be destroyed and got rid of.
Now, if we are going to study the natural history of the country--both
its native (or indigenous) and introduced animals and plants--we must
put away from our minds the idea of “weeds” and “pests,” and look at
and think of them as wonderful works of creation, full of beauty and
interest. All nature is full of beauty, and if one looks for this it
will be found everywhere. It will also be found that the study of the
book of nature is unending. It does not stop, like the story of a book,
but the more one learns and the more one comes to know the more one
will find fresh chapters opening. If you are a naturalist, a true lover
of Nature, and study her for half a century, you will find at the end
of that time that you are only beginning to learn a little about the
wonderful things which occur and exist in this wonderful world in which
we live.
In describing the more common animals of New Zealand I am going to
follow the regular order in which a naturalist would probably catalogue
them.
At this point a word is necessary as to the names to be used. Some
people profess to object very strongly to the use of technical names,
and say, “Give us English names that we can understand.” The objection
is absurd, and arises from ignorance and want of thought. How could a
naturalist give English names to the thousands of native and introduced
moths, beetles, and flies already known? To take a more special case
among the beetles alone, how could he distinguish among the twenty-five
species of native and the half-dozen or more introduced ladybirds? The
thing cannot be done. On the other hand, technical names are given on
a definite and simple plan, and are really not difficult to master. We
use them every day in speaking of garden-plants--_Anemone_, _Crocus_,
_Gladiolus_, _Chrysanthemum_, _Dahlia_, _Fuchsia_, _Veronica_, and so
on.
In regard to the animals we are to deal with in this book we hardly
need to use technical names, and will do so as sparingly as possible.
The first and highest group in the animal kingdom are the Mammalia.
These are vertebrate (or back-boned) animals which are fur-clad, and
the females have glands which secrete milk for the nourishment of
the young. These glands open to the surface of the body by teats, or
mammae, hence the name. Mammals are all warm-blooded animals. There
are many other distinctive features by which animals of this group are
characterized, both anatomical and physiological, but here we intend to
give only the most distinctive points.
Mammals are divided into several orders, and of these six are now
represented in the New Zealand fauna. As I do not wish to burden these
pages with technicalities, I shall give only the briefest accounts of
these orders, and mention the animals found here which belong to them.
1. The animals of the order Marsupialia are popularly known as pouched
animals. Their most distinctive character is that the mammae lie
within a pouch in which the young are placed while in an imperfect
condition. Two kinds of animals belonging to this order are wild in New
Zealand--namely, wallabies and so-called opossums.
2. The order Ungulata includes a large assemblage of herbivorous
animals of somewhat diverse character. They possess theoretically
five toes in each foot, but actually these are reduced to two, or, in
the case of the horse, to one toe. This reduction is accompanied by a
reduced condition of the ulna, which is fused with the radius, and the
fibula is fused with the tibia. The order includes horses, pigs, deer,
oxen, sheep, and goats, all of which are, or have been, wild in this
country.
3. The third order, Cetacea, forms an extraordinary group of
warm-blooded animals, which breathe air and suckle their young, but
live in the sea. It includes all the forms known as whales, and all are
indigenous to New Zealand.
4. The Carnivora are, as their name implies, flesh-eaters. Their teeth
have sharp cutting-edges, and the canines are well developed to enable
them to tear the flesh off their prey. The order includes cats, dogs,
stoats, ferrets, and weasels, all of which have been introduced; and
seals, which are indigenous.
5. The animals of the order Rodentia are only occasionally carnivorous.
All possess long incisors furnished with strong chisel-like edges, and
with these they are able to gnaw their food, from which circumstance
the name is derived. The canine teeth are quite absent. In New Zealand
are to be found rats, mice, rabbits, and hares.
6. The last order represented here is the Insectivora, a group, mostly
of small animals, which is very difficult to define. The only animal
belonging to the order in New Zealand is the hedgehog.