In describing the more common animals of New Zealand I am going to follow the regular order in which a naturalist would probably catalogue them.
At this point a word is necessary as to the names to be used. Some people profess to object very strongly to the use of technical names, and say, “Give us English names that we can understand.” The objection is absurd, and arises from ignorance and want of thought. How could a naturalist give English names to the thousands of native and introduced moths, beetles, and flies already known? To take a more special case among the beetles alone, how could he distinguish among the twenty-five species of native and the half-dozen or more introduced ladybirds? The thing cannot be done. On the other hand, technical names are given on a definite and simple plan, and are really not difficult to master. We use them every day in speaking of garden-plants--_Anemone_, _Crocus_, _Gladiolus_, _Chrysanthemum_, _Dahlia_, _Fuchsia_, _Veronica_, and so on.
In regard to the animals we are to deal with in this book we hardly need to use technical names, and will do so as sparingly as possible.
The first and highest group in the animal kingdom are the Mammalia. These are vertebrate (or back-boned) animals which are fur-clad, and the females have glands which secrete milk for the nourishment of the young. These glands open to the surface of the body by teats, or mammae, hence the name. Mammals are all warm-blooded animals. There are many other distinctive features by which animals of this group are characterized, both anatomical and physiological, but here we intend to give only the most distinctive points.
Mammals are divided into several orders, and of these six are now represented in the New Zealand fauna. As I do not wish to burden these pages with technicalities, I shall give only the briefest accounts of these orders, and mention the animals found here which belong to them.
1. The animals of the order Marsupialia are popularly known as pouched animals. Their most distinctive character is that the mammae lie within a pouch in which the young are placed while in an imperfect condition. Two kinds of animals belonging to this order are wild in New Zealand--namely, wallabies and so-called opossums.