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.”
CHAPTER XII.
RODENTIA—RATS.
The gnawing-animals, which constitute the order Rodentia, form the most sharply defined group of the Mammalia, the distinguishing characters and name being derived from their teeth. These are of two kinds only—viz., incisors and grinders—there being two efficient incisors in each jaw, and from three to six molars. There are no canine teeth at all; consequently it is easy to recognize the skull of a rodent by its dentition. The animals are mostly small, the beaver being about the largest; while some kinds of mice are hardly more than a couple of inches long.
Seven species of rodents have been introduced into this country at one time or another. Of these, three species of rat, the mouse, and the guinea-pig belong to the simple-toothed rodents—that is, they never have at any period of their life more than two incisors in the upper jaw. The rabbit and the hare belong to the double-toothed rodents. These have each two large incisors in the upper jaw, and behind them two small—almost rudimentary—incisors.
A species of rat was one of the four land-mammals occurring in these islands when Captain Cook first visited New Zealand, the others being a dog and two species of bats. Sir Joseph Banks says in his Journal, “On every occasion when we landed in this country we have seen, I had almost said, no quadrupeds originally natives of it. Dogs and rats, indeed, there are—the former, as in other countries, companions of men, and the latter probably brought hither by the men. Especially as they are so scarce that I myself have not had an opportunity of seeing even one.”
This was not Forster’s experience, for in his account of the second voyage of Cook (in 1773) he says, “Our fellow-voyagers [Furneaux in the ‘Adventure’] found immense numbers of rats upon the Hippah Rock [Queen Charlotte Sound], so that they were obliged to put some large jars in the ground level with the surface, into which these vermin fell during the night by running backwards and forwards, and great numbers of them were caught in this manner.” It is now almost certain that this native rat was the same species (Mus exulans) as is still common in many of the South Sea islands and throughout the Pacific, and it probably came with the original immigrants, the ancestors of the Morioris and Maoris. It is, however, probable that the common European black rat (Mus rattus) came also into the country with the various ships which touched at these shores from 1769 onwards. Indeed, Yates, who wrote in 1835, says, “The Natives tell us that rats were introduced in the first ship by Tasman.” He is certainly not an authority on the subject, and too much importance need not be attached to his statement; but it is nevertheless interesting. In Cassell’s Natural History, Dallas, who writes on the Rodentia, says, “New Zealand at the time of its discovery harboured a rat known as the forest-rat, or Maori rat, which was a favourite article of food with the Natives, and is now almost extinct. It has been proved by Captain Hutton to be identical with our black rat (Mus rattus), and was probably introduced by the ancestors of the Maoris.”
I do not know when this was written, for Messrs. Cassell and Co. take the precaution not to put dates on many of their books. But Hutton, in vol. 20 of the “Transactions of the New Zealand Institute” (1888), speaks of the rats which invaded Picton and the Marlborough Sounds as Mus maorium, and says, “This rat is certainly different from Mus huegeli, from Fiji, and, I should think, from M. exulans.” The whole subject has recently been investigated by Oldfield Thomas, who is the greatest living authority in this group, and he is certainly of opinion that the kiore, or Maori rat, was the common Pacific species, M. exulans. Endless confusion occurs, however, among early writers in speaking of rats and their species, and this must be borne in mind in reading the accounts of these animals.