THE BAHAMA ISLANDS 373 



on this island. It is an uninhabited key lying about twenty miles northeast 

 from Xew Providence. They told me the following story about this key and 

 its rats: 'A pilot who was taking a vessel ont from Harbor Island, a port to 

 the northward, was dropped on this key where he expected his friends to call 

 for him. But they did not do so that day and he passed the night on the 

 island. At nightfall he was surrounded by rats that gathered from all sides 

 and attacked him. It was only by keeping on his feet all night and using a 

 club vigorously that he managed to escape the bites of the fierce little rodents.' 

 I did not find a single living mollusk on this key, nor did I see any land crabs 

 there, and in confirmation of the story, did see quite a number of rats in the 

 thick scrub." 



Mus MuscuLus Linne. 

 Mas musculus Linne, 1758, Syst. Nat. i, 10th ed., p. 62. 



The house mouse is an Old ^Yorld animal now introduced throughout the 

 greater part of America. 



I have seen no Bahama specimens, but Mr. C. J. Maynard writes : 

 " Common everywhei'e in Nassau and al^out the settlements on New Providence. 

 I once obtained a specimen that had nested in the hollow of a dead mangrove 

 on Andros Island." 



CAPROMYS. 



Capromys iXGRAHAMi Allen. 

 Capromys ingraliami Allen, 1891, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. iii, p. 329. 



Eastern island of the Plana Keys. Related species occur in the Greater 

 Antilles on Swan Island and in Venezuela. 



The Bahama hutia, though probably known to the earlier explorers of 

 the West Indies, was not technically described until 400 years after the Islands 

 were discovered. Whether Capromys ingi-ahami has always been confined to 

 the limited area that it now occupies is purely a matter of conjecture. There 

 is good reason to doubt its supposed occurrence on Mariguana, and Mr. Riley 

 found no traditions of its presence on other islands. 



Dr. Allen's account of the animal is so interesting that much of it may 

 be quoted. After describing the species,* he introduces Dr. Ingraham's field 

 notes : 



" On the morning of February 11, 1891, we anchored under the lee of 

 the easternmost of the Plana Keys, in latitude about 22° 33' north, longitude 



^ Loc cit., pp. 331-332. 



