noble: the resident birds of Guadeloupe. 361 



the coast of Guadeloupe and extend over the whole of Grande Terre. 

 These regions are now for the most part under cane cultivation. A 

 few swift flowing streams cross the plantations, but only the Grande 

 Riviere in the north is navigable for more than a few hundred yards. 

 The monotony of the grasslands is broken on the east coast by small 

 stands of timber and on the west coast by broad outcrops of volcanic 

 rocks. Marshes are rare in this belt and ponds even more so. On 

 Grande Terre the soil is sandy and calcareous and the absence of 

 water makes a hot and dusty landscape. 



(2) Uplands of hardwood forest. The savannahs merge gradually 

 into the uplands which are generally coAered with medium sized 

 deciduous trees. This belt varies in width from one to four miles and 

 in several places such as at Ste. Marie, Ste. Rose, and Trois Rivieres 

 it encroaches through the grassland area and extends to the ocean. 



(3) Rain forest. The dense tropical forest starts abruptly at about 

 1500 ft. and covers the greater part of the central region of Guadeloupe 

 proper. It is almost impenetrable. While its bird fauna is character- 

 istic, the number of species is small. 



(4) Mountain barrens. Lastly the wind swept country above 

 the tree line begins at about 4000 feet. It covers relatively a very 

 small proportion of the island and is almost devoid of life. 



' The Vertebrate Fauna. 



The vertebrates are represented in Guadeloupe by a very small 

 number of species. An agouti (Dasyproda nohlei G. M. Allen), 

 a racoon (Procyon minor Miller) and four or five species of bats com- 

 prise the entire indigenous mammalian fauna. The introduced 

 Mongoose {Mungos hirmanicus (Thomas)) is everywhere abundant 

 and it is due to its depredations that the land vertebrates are so 

 rapidly disappearing. The Anolis ferreus Cope is the commonest 

 reptile. Iguana delicatissima Laurenti, and the Ground Lizard 

 (Ameiva cincracea Barbour & Noble) are found today only on the small 

 islands off the coast. A skink (Mabuya maboia Dumeril & Bibron) 

 may likewise have been completely extirpated from the mainland of 

 Guadeloupe by the Mongoose. Two geckos, Sphaerodactylus fan- 

 tasticus (Dumeril & Bibron) and Thccodactylus rapicaudus (Houttuyn) 

 because of their secretive habits are not commonly found, but they 

 may be locally abundant. The two snakes, Typhlops lumbricalis 



