1867 - von Hochstetter, Ferdinand. New Zealand - CHAPTER VIII: The Fauna

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CHAPTER VIII.

The Fauna.

On looking over the Fauna of New Zealand, the almost total lack of land-mammalia appears, no doubt, to the observer as strikingly peculiar, as the singular substitution found in the shape of the wingless birds, some species of which, continuing in all probability into the present times, attained a gigantic size such as all the rest of the world has never produced.

Although from certain terms occurring in the Maori language, and from the most recent observations we may infer beyond a doubt, that New Zealand still harbours some few sporadic mammalia, which have thus far escaped the searching eye of science; yet, as regards the number of mammalia, this extensive insular country is surpassed by many far smaller islands of the South Sea. While upon islands of inconsiderable dimensions there are various gnawing animals, peculiar shrew-mice and bats living in trees; while upon the Marianas a deer even is found, -- New Zealand possesses only two distinctly proven genera, the bat (Pekapeka, two species) and a small indigenous rat (Kiore); and even this little quadruped

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seems already to have disappeared before his alien congener from Norway. An other quadruped, the Kararehe, or native dog, which has likewise become almost extinct, is of doubtful origin. It was observed by the very first discoverers of the island. Some assert, that it is indigenous, others that it accompanied the natives in their first migration; others that it was introduced by some early Spanish ship. But even if it was not indigenous, at any rate it dates from the remotest ages of antiquity, since the Maori tradition knows for it a special creator, Irawaru. It is described as a small lurger-like animal, black, red or dirty yellow; and its look, gait and general deportment are decidedly hang-dog and vulpine. It is not wild like the ravaging dingo of Australia.

On continuing to trace the names used in the Maori language for animals, we find numerous names applied to domestic animals, imported since the natives have come in contact with Europeans: horse (hoio), ass (kaihe), heifer, sheep (hipi), goat (nanenane), pig (poaka from pork), dog (kuri, poipoi, peropero), cat (ngeru, poti, tori); besides these names we find the name Waitoreke, which has been only lately clearly defined, having been hitherto applied sometimes to an otter-like, and sometimes to a seal-like animal. According to the reports of Dr. J. Haast, the existence of this animal has been recently established beyond a doubt; it lives in the rivers and lakes in the mountain ranges of the South Island, is of the size of a large cony with a glossy brown fur, and is probably to be classed with the otters. 1

The large maritime mammalia, whales and dolphins, likewise seals, were formerly very numerous on the coasts of the island.

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There are eight kinds of whales, two of dolphins, and three of seals. The latter are growing scarcer from year to year. The sea-bear (Kekeno) has probably ceased to select the North Island for its home; it is only the rugged and uninhabited Southwest Coast of South Island, that still continues to afford it sufficient solitude for cubbing, and haunts sufficiently favourable for the gambols of the other seals.

Pigs and cattle are introduced into New Zealand and have rapidly propagated throughout the land. The pig was the most valuable gift made by the first discoverers to a people, whose chief food was fern-root (Pteris esculenta], and who besides a few birds and fishes had no other animal food than the wild dog and the little rat. The pig lives with and by the side of man in his wildest, rudest natural state; it is a great addition to his means of subsistence, without interfering with his ordinary mode of living, while the possession of cattle depends on the existence of a more advanced stage of civilization. Cattle and swine run wild in various districts of the islands, and it is astonishing, to what numbers the wild pigs are multiplying. They find an excellent and everywhere plentiful food in the fern-roots, which formerly served the Maoris as a chief article of food. They retire shyly from the immediate vicinity of the settlements, because the settlers hunt them down energetically; but they congregate in the yet uninhabited valleys in a truly enormous number. The Wangapeka valley in the Province of Nelson I saw for miles up and down literally ploughed up by thousands of such wild pigs. They are nearly all black. Their extermination is sometimes contracted for by experienced hunters, and it is a fact that three men in 20 months upon an area of 250,000 acres killed not less than 25,000 of them; they moreover pledged themselves to kill 15,000 more. Where the wild pigs are very numerous, they do a great deal of damage to sheep-breeding.

Beside the domestic mammalia introduced by the Europeans, there are moreover some involuntarily imported vermin, that follow man most pertinaciously wherever he sets his foot. The

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mouse and the rat we found in the miserable huts of the fishermen upon the lone rock of St. Paul in the Indian Ocean as well as in the large sea ports on the coasts of all parts of the world. They will follow in the vessels all over the sea, through all climates, settle down with man wherever he settles, as unwelcome companions, and as a troublesome plague. Upon New Zealand, the European rat has totally exterminated the native rat Kiore, which used to be eaten by the Maoris.

Without following a sytematic order we pass over to the class of the Amphibia. The total absence of serpents, tortoises, and -- with the exception of a frog but very recently discovered, 2 -- also the absence of the batrachians is peculiarly striking. The lizards are represented by most harmless creatures despite the fables current among the natives about terrible dragon-like Ngararas. There are at present in all eleven species known; 3 five of them belong to

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the neat genus Naultinus, peculiar to New Zealand, the sluggish character of which reminds somewhat of our salamander. With regard to the land-tortoise found on the Wanganui River in Cook's Strait, Mr. Ch. Heaphy, the author of the statement, informed me that he really had found the tortoise there, but that he is now fully convinced that it had got there by mere accident, having probably escaped from a whaler during its stay there. The natives had never been aware of the existence of such an animal. A venomous serpent is likewise said to have been left there by an English captain, intentionally, but luckily it does not seem to have found a living there, as nothing further has been hitherto discovered of snakes.

The ringed sea-serpent (Pelamys bicolor), which is found from the Indian Ocean to the eastern-most groups of Polynesia, has also been found about New Zealand; but whether New Zealand is its southern-most limit, or whether it was transported thither by accident, remains yet to be decided. We ourselves met on board the Novara with a very instructive case of transportation. One morning in one of the cabins such a snake was found, which, as unobserved as it had got into the ship, could have slipped out equally unobserved into the sea at some far distant place.

As to fishes, the bays and coasts of New Zealand are teeming with them; and there are about 100 species enumerated in the catalogues. But just as the forests are destitute of game, so

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are the fresh-water lakes and rivers destitute of fish. So far as I myself had an opportunity to become acquainted with the contents of the rivers and lakes, I only found eels and what the colonists call whitebait. According to Mr. Haast's testimony, eels are predominant also in the rivers and lakes of the Provinces of Nelson and Canterbury, where they grow to an astonishing size of more than 50 pounds weight. We may well take it for granted, that there are various species, as the numerous distinctions made by the natives in naming them also lead to suppose; scientifically, however, but one species has hitherto been determined, the Anguilla Dieffenbachi Gray. There are more than two dozen names in vogue among the Maoris for eels; and even after reducing the number for the different ages, which in the common parlance have frequently special names, we may still suppose, that they belong to a greater number of species. In the smaller brooks I gathered the Inangas of the natives, the whitebait of the colonists (Eleotris) of which thus far three species have been distinguished. Like our Phoxinus they are very plentiful in fresh-water lakes and even in the smallest brooks. Numerous sea-fish rove far up the rivers, where the water is only faintly brackish. Remarkable is the appearance of some sea-fish which seem to belong to the South Sea within a broad belt on both sides of the 40th paral. of latitude. Thyrsites Atun, which is chiefly caught in Simon's Bay at the Cape of Good Hope, and which we angled also in the waters girding St. Paul's Island, together with some species of Cheilodactylus, "Morue des Indes", is likewise found on the coasts of New Zealand. The brilliancy of colour of the New Zealand fishes is quite inferior to that of the species living in the Indian Ocean. The magnificently coloured Squamipennians are totally wanting, and the Julides number but few species displaying as beautiful a medley of colours as those of the other seas.

The most charming part of the fauna are the birds. The total number of species known amounts at present to 100 (England contains 273 species). Numerous species, however, exclusively peculiar

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to New Zealand, and the most remarkable ones there are rapidly dying out, and are already partly extinct. 4 One of the prettiest creatures is the Tui, Parson Bird of the colonists (Prosthemadera Novae Zelandiae), which roves about in the lofty, leafy crowns of the forest-trees. "Larger than the blackbird and more elegant in shape, his plumage is lustrous black, irradiated with green hues and pencilled with silver grey, and he displays a white throat-tuft for his clerical bands. He can sing, but seldom will; and preserves his voice for mocking others. Darting from some low shrub to the topmost twig of the tallest tree, he commences roaring forth such a variety of strange noises with such changes of voice and volume of tone, as to claim the instant attention of the forest. Caught and caged, he is still the merry ventriloquist, mocks cocks and cats and attempts the baby. To add to his merits, he becomes a very fine eating in the season of the Poroporo berries." 5 The chief songster is the Kokorimoko (Anthornis melanura). Of the Certhiparus species among the real warblers, likewise of the New Zealand thrush (Turnagra crassirostris), and the starlings Aplonis and Creadion, I am not able to say, whether and how they sing. A striking exception appeared to me the New Zealand lark (Alauda Novae Zelandiae), very common on all roads and hills, which I have, however, never heard utter a sound. A remarkably fine tenant of the forests is the large wood-pigeon Kuku (Carpophaga Novae Zelandiae).

In the family of the parrots we met in New Zealand a very peculiar genus, that of the Nestor. They are characterized by an aquiline, far overlapping upper-beak. The brilliant hues of the parrot-family is bleached down in the chief representative of this genus, the Kaka -- (Nestor hypopolius, synon. with Nestor meridionalis or Australis), -- very numerous and common in all the woods, to a faint brown and grayish-green; only the exceedingly rare and larger species, Nestor notabilis and Nestor Esslingii, display livelier

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colours, a greenish metallic hue, and under the wings red, yellow and blue. A fourth species, N. productus, is known to exist on Philip's Island, a small isle near Norfolk Island in the North of New Zealand. The several Platycerus species, Kakariki of the Maoris, are parrots with brilliant colours in green, blue and red. A perfectly anomalous form, on the other hand, is the yellowish-green owl- or night-parrot, Kakapo of the natives (Strigaps habroptilus). It lives in crevices of the ground under tree-roots or in rocks and comes out only at night to pick the berries of the Tutu shrub (Coriaria sarmentosa) and to grub fern-roots. Although it can fly, it seems to use its wings very seldom. It always lives with its mate. The natives used to chase it with dogs or to catch it in snares. Thus it has been totally exterminated on the North Island; and now it is confined to the remotest Alpine valleys, on the South and West Coasts of South Island; yet it is still quite frequent in those parts.

Another famous bird of chase with the natives is the Weka (Ocydrornus Australis), or the wood-hen, belonging to the class of rails, which have already become quite scarce upon North Island. In the grassy plains and forests of the Southern Alps, however, they are still found in considerable numbers. It is a thievish bird, greedy after every thing that glistens; it frequently carries off spoons, forks and the like; but it also breaks into hen-coops, and picks and sucks the eggs. Among the swamp-fowls there are especially some herons, an oyster-catcher, the New Zealand plover, and the beautiful Pukeko (Sultana) to be mentioned. These together with wild ducks, including the splendid Paradise duck, and several species of cormorants enliven the numerous water-channels of the river estuaries, which are unapproachable on account of their extensive marshy bottoms; on the banks, beneath the dense foliage of the overhanging trees they find everywhere safe hiding places. 6 On

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the southern extremity of New Zealand there are two small pinguins; while the coasts round about are teeming with albatrosses, storm-petrels, sea-gulls, and sea-swallows. Of the yellow headed Australian Sula we found numerous bevies swimming about outside the entrance to the harbour of Auckland.

The number of molluscas found on the coasts of New Zealand is very considerable. In all there have been described about 344 species, belonging to 123 genera, and every research furnishes new species. Strombus, Triton, Murex, Fusus, Voluta number species both considerable and highly prized; Voluta magnifica is the largest species of the latter genus. Of Struthiolaria, belonging exclusively to the Australian seas, there are three species known. The Cypraea aurora, living in the South of the Pacific Ocean, so highly prized by the savages, and still dearly paid for by zoological collectors, is found also here. Of the numerous top-shells, there are three species of the genus Imperator, -- which likewise belong only to the South Sea, -- besides some beautiful, but rare species of Turbo. Haliotis Iris ("Mutton fish" of the settlers) is here found in colossal specimens. The nipple-shells (Patella) are also very abundant. The extensive cliffs of the inlets near Auckland, which cut deeply into the land like so many rivers are covered with savoury oysters, which in time of low water can be knocked off very easily. Of Brachiopodes four species are known; the pretty red coloured Terebratella rubicunda, cruenta, Bourhdi and suffusa.

Less numerous are the land- and freshwater-molluscas. Exclusive of some very fine species, such as Helix Busbyi, Bulimus Shongii, B. Novoseelandicus and the lately discovered magnificent Helix Hochstetteri Pfr. 7 from the Alps of South Island, the land-

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shells are mostly but small and insignificant; they live very clandestinely and have but recently been brought to light by the closer

Helix Hochstetteri Pfeiffer, a new land-snail from the South-Island, in life size.

researches of science. The rivers which I had an opportunity to examine, are in-habited by small and very peculiar species of Hydrobia and by two kinds of Unio, large quantities of which are caught by the natives with whom they constitute a chief article of food.

Of crustaceae, the number of species described are 56; of insects 265 species, belonging to 215 genera. Among them 179 species Coleoptera, 11 Neuroptera, 18 Hymenoptera, 13 Homoptera, 11 Hemiptera, 55 Lepidoptera, 57 Diptera, and 21 Arachnida. The Orthoptera of New Zealand are characterized by this particular, that the majority of the species of all orders possess either no organs of flight, or but very stunted ones; which peculiarity was pointed out already by Erichson in speaking of the fauna of Tasmania; which, however, occurs to a far less degree in Australia.

The largest beetle, which I collected myself in the woods on

Weta (Deinacrida heterocantha), female in life-size.

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the Waikato, is the Prionoplus reticularis White, a goat-chafer swarming at night. This, when full grown, is l 1/2 inch long. A much larger giant, however, and at the same time the oddest one of the New Zealand insects is among the Orthopterae the Weta of the natives (Deinacrida heterocantha). It lives in rotten wood and under the bark of trees, and the length of a large full grown specimen from the ends of its hind-legs to the tips of its feelers is 14 inches, the body measuring 2'/2 inches; but despite its hideous looks it is perfectly harmless.

The butterflies are distinguished neither by size nor by richness of colours. Night-butterflies arc more frequent than day-butterflies; and among the former it is especially the family of moths, which is most extensively represented both as to the number of species and that of individuals. Among the few day-butterflies, which most easily strike the eye of the traveller, there are no strange forms; but some few Europeans, such as our "painted lady". Very common was in Auckland Leptosoma annulatum Bod. Libellae (dragon-flies), -- although their species are comparatively few, -- nevertheless exist in large numbers in the swamps and stagnant waters about Auckland. Of the three known species of Cicadas I observed one frequently in Auckland; it was met with in every street; everywhere it was heard chirping its shrill notes, even while sitting in the dust of the street, where it was often scared up by passers-by together with a small beetle (Cicendella tuberculata).

Every traveller, that spends but a few days on the coasts of New Zealand, has ample chance to become acquainted with the troublesome insects of New Zealand in the shape of two small bloodsuckers, the stinging gnats, vulgo mosquitoes (Culex), which in the damp forest fall upon the unsuspecting wanderer in swarms of countless myriads; and a small midge, vulgo sand-fly (Simulium), which lives chiefly on river-banks and on the sea-beach, and stings most unmercifully. The flea was probably imported by Europeans; the natives, therefore, call it the Pakeha-nohinohi, the little stranger. I will moreover make special mention of an insect most offensive because of its noisome smell. In Sydney already I met with a

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Blatta (vulgo "cock-roach") of which I convinced myself, that like the chinches it can really squirt at pleasure a corrosive fluid, the penetrating smell of which is intolerable. In Auckland it is dreaded so much, that in wood-houses, vaults, and damp places special care is taken, not to come into contact with the vermin, since in that case it infects every thing for days at a time with the most terrible stench imaginable. Because of this property which is especially characteristic of the wood-bugs, the colonists call it wood-bug. Of the real wood-bugs, however, there are likewise some species. This Blatta is doubtless the same as the insect named by the natives Kikararu, which was erroneously taken for a bug. It is a new species, described by Mr. Brunner of Vienna, as Polyzosteria Novae Zelandiae.

It might not be improper to mention here also the Aweto or Hotete the large (night-butterfly) caterpillar, from the head of which a parasitical fungus, Sphaeria Robertsii, grows out; hence the name "Vegetating Caterpillar" among the colonists. A large portion of such caterpillars die of it, while burying themselves in the ground for the purpose of changing into a chrysalis. A peculiarity of this fungus is this, that the stem bearing the seed-spurs as its end, rises nearly exclusively in the neck of the caterpillar between the head and the first ring of the body. Of hundreds of specimens that I examined, there was only a single one, the fungus of which had grown out of the aft-end of the caterpillar. The natives eat this vegetating caterpillar.

The known species of Crustaceae in New Zealand were increased through the Novara collections by twelve new ones. The Brachyura are most numerous, and crabs are found everywhere on the seashore. The Bernhard crabs, although not very numerous, are still not utterly wanting. Of the Macrura I may mention especially Paranephrops tenuicomis Dana, which I found to be quite numerous in all the rivers; the natives call it Koura, which

The Vegetating Caterpillar, Sphaeria Robertsii, 1/2 of life-size.

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term, however, is applied to various crabs, even to the lobsters fished from the sea. Of Stomapodes, Isopodes, Myriapodes various kinds have been collected and recorded, without, however, having been subjected to a more minute examination. The same must be said respecting the remaining classes of the lower animals. The Radiaria and worms of the sea are as yet but little known; neither are the Spongiae, of which New Zealand possesses numerous as well as interesting species, known to any extent.