Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand . M£/S AOZ/E Z£IJ/V£//E, JtvMt jguefaaruo ../. a 7r?Jr. ML/S -AucManJ, JPrutlni itt>t/tt Ain,;-A<jr Jy i£-T«--v«i the diminution of food, caused by the overwhelming increase of an unfriendlyrace, it is impossible to determine. It has, indeed, been alleged by manynaturalists, that the brown rat has actually worried to death its less powerfulrelative; and, although this is mere conjecture, it is by no means improbableif we consider the character of that audacious animal, which has been known,when hard pressed, to attack ev

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Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand . M£/S AOZ/E Z£IJ/V£//E, JtvMt jguefaaruo ../. a 7r?Jr. ML/S -AucManJ, JPrutlni itt>t/tt Ain,;-A<jr Jy i£-T«--v«i the diminution of food, caused by the overwhelming increase of an unfriendlyrace, it is impossible to determine. It has, indeed, been alleged by manynaturalists, that the brown rat has actually worried to death its less powerfulrelative; and, although this is mere conjecture, it is by no means improbableif we consider the character of that audacious animal, which has been known,when hard pressed, to attack even one of the lords of creation, when unusuallyhungry to gnaw the flesh of his defenceless offspring, and, when famished, tokill and devour its own kind.* [This rat resembles Mus ftiscipes of Waterhouse and Darwin ( Voyage of H. M. S. Beagle Vol. i., p. 66), which inhabits the southernpart of the Australian continent. This rat is said to be not uncommonon board steamers trading between New Zealand and that country, andmaintains its position against the brown Norway rat (M. decumanus);

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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectscience, bookyear1870