CHIROPTERA—NEW ZEALAND BATS.
How many people—especially young people—in New Zealand have seen native bats? Two species occur in the country, and one of these at one time was fairly common. Now they are very rarely seen in the settled districts. It is some years since I have seen one in the Dunedin Town Belt, a locality in which they formerly were common. In Hutton and Drummond’s “Animals of New Zealand” it is said that “a peculiar interest is attached to these creatures. One has become very rare; the other is on the brink of extinction, and may, indeed, even now have ceased to exist. They are popularly called the ‘short-tailed’ and the ‘long-tailed.’ As if to make up in one respect for deficiency in another, short-tail has long ears, and long-tail has short ones.” I do not think this estimate of their occurrence is a correct one. Bats still occur in forest regions, and in the wide and quite unsettled areas lying between the open country of Otago and Southland and the West Coast Sounds it is quite probable that the short-tailed species is still to be met with. The only people likely to come across bats are the few explorers who traverse these almost unknown regions, and bushfellers and sawmill hands, for these animals hide themselves from all ordinary observers. Bats hide away in holes in trees and in rock caves during the day, and even when flying at night are not easily caught, unless one stretches out a white sheet, when they sometimes flap right into it.
The short-tailed bat (Mystacops tuberculatus) seems to have first been met with by Dr. Knox, of Auckland, who got one and presented it to the British Museum in July, 1843. In 1871 he got another, I think, in the Hutt Valley. In the same year, when H.M.S. “Clio” was in Milford Sound, several of these bats were caught when the sails were being hung out to dry. When Hutton described this species in 1871 there were only two specimens in the Colonial Museum—one from the Hutt Valley and the other from the “Clio.”
The feet of bats are peculiar. The toes are all about the same length, and the first (or great) toe is nearly in a line with the others; all are furnished with sharp claws. They are not fitted to walk on the ground, but to grasp the branches of trees, and Hutton says this species “has adaptations which led to the conclusion that it hunts for its insect prey not only in the air, but also on the branches and leaves of trees, among which its peculiarities of structure must enable it to creep and crawl with ease and security.” The length of this little bat is about 2·8 in., and the spread of its wings about 12 in. Knox says of it, “A well-defined line ran from the wrist-joint, sweeping round to the elbow, knee, and setting on of the tail, dividing the wing-shaped pectoral extremity, so that on the internal segment hair was developed, whilst on the external segment the integumentary expansion was perfectly smooth, so that when the forearm and hand was completely drawn in or retracted, the tail being free, the animal resembled in every respect, even in that of colour and short silky hair, a little mouse; and the small, short thumb, with its peculiar nail, would rest on the ground.”
The long-tailed, short-eared bat (Chalinolobus morio) is found all over New Zealand. Hutton says of it, “Up to 1885 it was common about Christchurch, but it is thought that the destruction of the old wooden bridge over the Avon, where numbers used to gather together, has driven it away. It measures about 2 in. in total length, being slightly smaller than the other species, and is about the same size as the ‘flitter-mouse,’ the commonest species in England.” Knox gives rather larger dimensions for this bat. One he measured was 3½ in. long and had a spread of wing of 10·8 in. Buller, writing of these animals in 1892, says that both species, according to the Maoris, live in communities, inhabiting the cavernous interior of some dead and hollow tree, congregating there in hundreds and thousands, and clinging to the sides in successive tiers, packed so closely as to occupy the entire surface.
Mr. Caldwell, a District Surveyor, gave Buller the following information about this bat: “I left Carterton, together with two companions,” he said, “for a walk into the hills at the right-hand side of the Waiohine, going by way of the Belvedere Road. We got fairly up the hills by about 10 a.m., and climbed a high range covered with black-birch. Getting warm we sat down on the moss to rest. Then my attention was attracted by a smell of a kind I had not noticed in the bush before, and one that reminded me of a flying-fox camp in Queensland. I followed the smell for some distance to a large birch-tree, with an opening about 4 ft. from the ground. I had evidently traced the smell to its source, for at the opening it was fairly stifling. I could see nothing, so I lighted a bunch of dry leaves, and thrust it through the opening into the tree. As I did this a bat flew out in my face, then another and another. The smoke increased, and the bats streamed out in hundreds. I had no means of computing the number; but one of my men, having a small switch in his hand, kept striking at the stream, the result of which I afterwards counted. There were exactly a hundred bats killed. For one killed at least ten must have passed and flown away. Large numbers dropped down in clusters through the blazing opening. I had no idea there were so many bats in the Wairarapa, and would not have believed it had I not seen them. I have never seen in New Zealand another such collection.” My first comment on reading this account was disgust and indignation at the wanton slaughter of these rare and inoffensive animals. Buller adds that “most unfortunately the fire took possession of the tree, which was in a very dry and combustible state, and the whole colony perished in the conflagration.” It is no wonder these animals have become rare!
Cheeseman records numerous other instances of the great congregations of these bats in bush-covered districts. Many hundreds were found in a hollow tree in the Wangapeka Valley, Nelson, in 1881. Later on a colony of several hundreds was found in the Thames; and in 1893 a bushfeller in the Kaipara district found hundreds of them in a tree which he cut down. He brought twenty-two of them alive in a box to Mr. Cheeseman, who, being anxious to see how they would behave in a room with closed doors and windows, liberated them. “The experiment justified to some extent the belief that bats enjoy an acute sense of touch, probably unequalled throughout the animal kingdom. They took to their wings at once, and commenced to circle round the room with that quick, soft, and noiseless flight which they are enabled to pursue by means of their velvety wings. The presence of full daylight did not affect them in the slightest degree, and they made no mistake in estimating their distance from an object. They circled round the room, flying in and out of the corners, skimming just below the ceiling, and hovering over the furniture, but never coming in contact with anything. Nor did they dash themselves against the window-panes, as birds would have done in similar circumstances, but they treated the glass in precisely the same manner as the walls of the room. After satisfying themselves that there was no mode of escape from the room, they began to settle down on the tops of the architraves of the doors and windows, hanging, head downwards, by the claws of their forewings. Ultimately they collected in clusters of four or five, cuddling quite close to one another, and they were then easily transferred to their cage.”