now
(and notwithstanding all my endeavours, backed, too, by large
rewards) I never saw. It is without doubt a true <i>Mus</i>,
smaller than our English black rat (<i>Mus Rattus</i>), and not
unlike it. This little animal once inhabited the plains and
<i>Fagus</i> forests of New Zealand in countless thousands,
and was both the common food and great delicacy of the natives--
and already it is all but quite classed among the things which
were."

1880. A. R. Wallace, `Island Life,' p. 445:

"The Maoris say that before Europeans came to their country a
forest rat abounded, and was largely used for food . . .
Several specimens have been caught . . . which have been
declared by the natives to be the true Kiore Maori--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 . . . 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 <i>Mus rattus</i>."

<hw>Rata</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for two New Zealand erect
or sub-scandent flowering trees, often embracing trunks of
forest trees and strangling them: the Northern Rata,
<i>Metrosideros robusta</i>, A. Cunn., and the Southern Rata,
<i>M. lucida</i>, Menz., both of the <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>.
The tree called by the Maoris <i>Aka</i>, which is another
species of <i>Metrosederos (M. florida</i>), is also often
confused with the Rata by bushmen and settlers.

In Maori, the <i>adj</i>. <i>rata</i> means red-hot, and there
may be a reference to the scarlet appearance of the flower in
full bloom. The timber of the <i>Rata</i> is often known as
<i>Ironwood</i>, or <i>Ironbark</i>. The trees rise to sixty
feet in height; they generally begin by trailing downwards from
the seed deposited on the bark of some other tree near its top.
When the trailing branches reach the ground they take root
there and sprout erect. For full account of the habit of the
trees, see quotation 1867 (Hochstetter), 1879 (Moseley), and
1889 (Kirk).

1843. E. Dieffenbach, `Travels in New Zealand,' p. 224:

"The venerable rata, often measuring forty feet in
circumference and covered with scarlet flowers--while its stem
is often girt with a creeper belonging to the same family
(<i>metrosideros hypericifolia</i>?)."

1848