1898] ZOOLOGICAL JAMAICA 1G9 



the latter were often found in the banana ' trash.' Tree-frogs are 

 common, especially the species which lays its eggs in the water held 

 in the base of the leaves of the Bromeliac, where we often found the 

 tadpoles swimming about. Lizards of all sorts and sizes abound, 

 some of them being beautifully coloured. Two or three. small 

 iguanas were also brought into the laboratory, but they are rather 

 rare. At Port Antonio we heard a good deal about Jamaica's most 

 interesting mammal, the agouti, or, as it is more often called, the 

 cony. It is peculiar to the island, though there is an allied species 

 in Cuba. Though now quite rare it is still to be met with in the 

 John Crow and Blue mountains. There are several specimens in the 

 small menagerie of native animals kept at the Jamaica Institute in 

 Kingston, and they have bred there. At Port Antonio we were 

 offered a pair alive for twenty dollars, but we were unable to procure 

 any, dead or alive, at any less price. 



Most noticeable and best known of all the native fauna, the 

 birds of Jamaica demand a special word. Over 200 species have 

 been recorded, of which 40, almost exactly one fifth, are peculiar 

 to the island. Of the remainder about 50 may be classed as West 

 Indian, while about 90 are distinctly North American, many of 

 our common New England birds being migrants or winter visitors. 

 There are four or five summer visitors from the mainland of South 

 and Central America, but they form a very insignificant part of the 

 avifauna. Much the greater number of water-birds are more or 

 less well known in the United States, and the same may be said 

 of the warblers. But the doves, cuckoos, swifts, humming-birds, 

 parrots, and fly-catchers are almost exclusively West Indian, and a 

 large number of them are distinctively Jamaican. On the coast, 

 besides the man-of-war birds and pelicans already mentioned, the 

 tropic-bird occurs and terns are abundant, especially in Kingston 

 harbour. The two common humming-birds are found in all culti- 

 vated districts ; one is interesting because of its very small size, the 

 other because of its rich, dark-purple plumage and long, forked tail. 

 About Kingston the small palm-swift is abundant, and nests in the 

 cocoa-nut trees in the very heart of the city. The most gorgeously 

 coloured bird, the tody, is one of the smallest, and its bright red 

 and vivid green plumage is very striking. The two fly-catchers, 

 which correspond so closely to our king-bird and phoebe as easily 

 to deceive even a careful observer, are especially common at Port 

 Antonio, where the peculiar cuckoo, Crotvphaga, is also always in 

 evidence. 



It is curious to note the paucity of names among the natives 

 for even the common animals, a single name being made to serve 

 for two or more widely different forms. The name ' sea-cat ' is 

 given to the octopus, and to large medusae, especially Cassiopea, 



