VOL. XII, PP. 91-92 APRIL 30, 1898 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THK 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



A NEW RACCOON FROM NASSAU ISLAND, BAHAMAS. 

 BY OUTRAM BANGS. 



The announcement lately made by Mr. Oldfield Thomas* of 

 the existence of two distinct species of indigenous Muridse in 

 the West Indies, Oryzomys antillarum, of. Jamaica, and 0. victus, 

 of St. Vincent, has somewhat changed our ideas of the mamma 

 lian fauna of these islands. Mr. C. J. Maynard has, moreover, 

 known for many years that a raccoon was abundant on Nassau 

 Island. 



Before Mr. Maynard started on his last trip to the Bahamas I 

 begged him to get specimens of this raccoon. But his time was 

 so occupied in collecting other objects of natural history, in which 

 he was more interested, that it is doubtful if he would have 

 secured one at all if just before he started for home some negroes 

 had not brought him a female that they had caught alive. Mr. 

 Maynard brought her home alive, and on the voyage she gave 

 birth to one young, also a female. The two are now alive and 

 well at Mr. Maynard's place in Newton, Mass., where I went last 

 summer to. see them. I was at once struck by the small size of 

 these raccoons, and got Mr. Maynard to write to his friend, Mr. 

 Herbert L. -Claridge, at Nassau, to get me a specimen. In due 

 course Mr. Claridge sent me one, a young male, unfortunately 

 with the back part of the skull smashed. The small size of this 

 specimen, together with the peculiarities of the unbroken part 

 of the skull, are sufficient to distinguish the animal as a distinct 

 island form. 



There is no tradition among the inhabitants of Nassau that 



*Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. I, Feb., 1898, p. 176. 



20-Bioi,. Soc. WASH., Vor.. XII, 189 (91) 



