15i< 



ao that many of the determinations are open to very great doubt, 

 evHH in the case of coramon species. For example the Howler 

 Monkey, probably known to everyone in the island, appears 

 never to have been scientifically determined, although there are 

 some five or six species iound on the continent, any one of which 

 the Trinidad Howler might prove to be. The same remarks are 

 applicable to the Capuchin Monkey (Cebus s-p.J and even to the 

 Deer (Cariacus sp.J Still more is this the case with the 

 smaller and less noticeable animals, such as the rats and mice, 

 agoutis, etc., etc. 



Now for the clearing up of these questions, all persons 

 interested in the Natural History of the Island are earnestly 

 begged to do what they can to obtain specimens and to transmit 

 them home for identification.* It need hardly be said that in 

 any future list full credit wuU be given to anyone who will take 

 the trouble to do this, and there can be no question that every 

 collection made at present is sure to contain species new to the 

 island, even if not, as in the case of two of the bats I recently 

 received from the island, altogether new to science. 



In this connection I would specially draw attention to the 

 good service which our President, Mr. Caracciolo, has rendered 

 tc science by sending home to the British .Museum so large a 

 number of the mammals of Trinidad, and I trust other members 

 of the Society will follow his generous example. To Mr. Hart 

 also we owe a considerable number of specimens, many of them 

 obtained fur the first time in Trinidad. 



Mammals may be made into skins, and their skulls pi'eserved 

 either in situ or sewn up inside their bellies, or the smaller 

 specimens, and especially bats, may be preserved entire in spirits. 

 Particulars such as date of capture, exact locality, altitude' 

 weight when freshly killed, etc., etc., should be carefully 

 recorded on the labels. 



Of previous lists of the mammals the first is that given by 

 Ledruf in 1810, in which ten species are mentioned, and these 

 form of course the first record of the species in Trinidad. But 

 the most important list is that by Dr. de Verteuil| in his well 

 known book on the island. Prom this list many of those in the 

 present one are taken, but owing to its not having been made 

 up by a systematic mammalogist many of the animals are quite 

 unrecognizable under the names which he has applied to them. 



A list of nine species of bats collected by Dr. D. Huggins at 



* The Trinidad Fisld Naturalists' Club has kindly offered to receive and 

 forward specimens intended for the Museum. 



I Voy. TenSriffe, et la Trinity, I. p. 256, 1810. 

 J Trinidad, 2nd edition, page 860, 1884. 



