OCR Text |
Show 4-!4 ISLAND J .. IFE. (l'AU'l' 11. the sea-bottom were elevated 6,000 feet, has a very remarkable conformation extending in a broad mass westward, and then sending out t'wo great arms, one reachingto beyond Lord Howe's Island while the other stretches over Norfolk Island to the great 'barrier reef, thus forming a connectio~ with tropical Australia and New Guinea. Temperate Austraha, on the other hand, is divided from New Zealand by an oceanic gulf about 700 miles wide and between 2,000 and 3,000 fathoms deep. The 2,000-fathom line embraces all the islands immediately 'round New Zealand; and a submarine plateau at a depth somewhere between one and two thousand fathoms stretches southward to the Antarctic continent. Judging from these indications, we should say that the most probable ancient connections of · New Zealand were with tropical Austra1ia and New Guinea, and perhaps, at a still more remote epoch, with the great Southern continent by means of intervening lands and islands; and we shall find that a land-connection or near approximation in these two directions, at remote period s, will serve to explain many .of the remarkable anomalies which these islands present. . Zoological Oha1·acter of New Zealand.-We see, then, that both geologically and geographically New Zealand has more of the character of a "continental" than of an "oceanic" island, yet its zoological characteristics are such as almost to bring i~ within the latter category-and it is this which gives it its anomalous character. It is usually consider ed to possess no indigenous mammalia ; it has no snakes, and only one frog ; it possesses (livin'g or quite recently extinct) an extensive group of birds incapable of flight; and its productions generally are wonderfully isolated, and seem to bear no predominant or close relation to those of Australia or any other continent. These are the characteristics of an oceanic island ; and thus we fi nd that the inferences from its physical structure and those from its forms of life directly contradict each other. Let us see bow far a closer examination of the latter will enable us to account for this apparent contradiction. ]J{amnwlia of New Zealand.--The only undoubtedly indi-genous mammalia appear to be two species of ba,ts, one of whicl1 OllAl'. XXI.) NEW :tl!~ALAND. 445 (Scotophilus t~(;berculatus) is, according to Mr. Dobson, identical with an Australian form, while the other (Mystacina t~(;beTculata) forms a very remarkable and isolated o-enus of Emballonuridre • • b ' a family whiCh extends throughout all the tropical regions of the globe. The genus Mystacina was formerly considered to belong to the America,n Phyllostomidre, but this has been shown to be an error.1 The poverty of New Zealand in bats is very remarkable when compared with our own islands where there are at least twelve distinct species, though having a far less favourable climate. Of the ex:istence of truly indigenous land mat;nmals in New Zealand there is at present no positive evidence, but there is some reason to believe that one if not two species may be found there. The Maoris say tha,t before Europeans came to their country a forest-rat abounded and was largely used for foo<.l. They believe that their ancestors brought it with them when they first came to the country; but it has now become almost, if not quite, exterminated by the European brown rat. What this native animal was is still somewhat doubtful. Several specimens have been caught at different times which have been ?eclared by the natives to be the true J(iore Mam·i-as they term. It, but these have usually proved on examination to be either the European black rat or some of the native Australian rats which now often find their way on board ships. But within the last few years many skulls of a rat have been obtained from the old Maori cooking-places, and from a cave associated with moa bones; and Captain Hutton, who has examined them, states that they belong to a true Mus, but differ from the M1.~;s ratt~ts. This animal might have been on the islands when the Maoris first arri~ed, and in that case would be truly indigenous; while the Maon legend of their " ancestors" bringino- the rat from their Polynesian home may be altogether a myth i~vented to account for its presence in the islands, because ·the only other land mammal ~hich they knew-the dog----was certainly so brought. The questiOn can only be settled by the discovery of remains 1 Dobson on the Classification of Chiropte:ra {Ann. and Mag. of Nat, Jlist. Nov. 1875). |