1893. CLASSIFICATION OF ISEANDS. IgI 
oceanic island that had never formed part of a continental area. 
Accordingly, though Barbados is exceedingly fertile, and though the 
island when first discovered was clothed with forest and underwood, 
its native terrestrial fauna is a very small one. 
There are only two mammals in Barbados which have been 
supposed to be indigenous, a monkey and a racoon-like animal, but 
I am informed by Col. Fielden that the monkey proves to be the 
Green Monkey of Western Africa, Cercopithecus callitrichus, and the 
“‘racoon”’ is a South American animal (Procyon cancrivorus). The 
monkey was doubtless brought over in slave-ships, and as it is known 
that the Caribbean Indians frequented the island before it was 
colonised by Europeans, and as the early settlers had intercourse 
with the colonists of Guiana, it is quite possible that the Procyon 
was introduced by man. ; 
There are no indigenous Amphibia, but there are two Snakes 
and four species of Lizards. One of the snakes is a species peculiar 
to Barbados, the other may have been introduced by human agency 
from some of the other islands. Of the lizards, three are South 
American species, and the fourth is found in all the Lesser Antilles, 
though it is not yet known from South America. The manner in 
which reptiles may be landed on an island like Barbados is illustrated 
by the case recorded by Col. H. W. Fielden in the ‘“ Zoologist”’ of 
1888, p. 236; this was the landing of an alligator on the shore from 
a floating tree-trunk, actually witnessed in 1886; it had doubtless 
been transported from one of the great South American rivers, but 
it was promptly dispatched by those who witnessed its arrival. 
In a paper on the birds of Barbados, Col. Fielden remarks 
that, so faras he can judge, ‘“‘the mammals, reptiles, and land 
molluscs owe their introduction either to ocean-currents, accidental 
occurrences, or to the direct agency of man, and a review of its avi- 
fauna does not point to a different conclusion.” He also speaks of 
Barbados as a “truly oceanic island in the sense of its never having 
formed part of a continent since the introduction of its present 
meagre fauna,” nor “since it emerged as a coral-reef from the 
ocean.” This is perfectly true, but yet it does not come under 
Wallace’s definition of an oceanic island for the reason already 
stated. 
The difficulty of drawing hard and fast lines between oceanic 
and continental islands is also illustrated by the structure and fauna 
of the Seychelles Archipelago, in the Indian Ocean. These islands 
are surrounded by water of more than 1,000 fathoms, and are 
850 miles distant from the coast of Africa. They might, therefore, 
be expected to exhibit all the features of oceanic islands; the facts, 
however, are as follow: The larger islands consist entirely of granite, 
and granite is a deep-seated rock which can only.be exposed by the 
prolonged and repeated processes of erosion which take place on 
large areas of land. Dr. Wallace admits them to be remnants of 
