70 THE GEOGRAPHY OF MAMMALS 



the Virgin Islands on the west, and the Anguilla group on 

 the east. 



On the whole the Lesser Antilles appear to have 

 derived their fauna direct from South America, but 

 probably in times considerably remote, and without the 

 assistance of a land-connection. The almost complete 

 absence of terrestrial mammals and of representatives of 

 sedentary and non-migratory birds in the Lesser Antilles 

 seems to show this. For instance, Grenada possesses only 

 fifteen land-birds also found in Trinidad, and of these 

 none belong to the sedentary families, although the two 

 islands are only separated by an interval of seventy-five 

 miles of sea. On the whole, therefore, it seems probable 

 that, although the Lesser Antilles have derived the bulk 

 of their fauna from South America, they have never been 

 directly connected with that continent. 



Of the Greater Antilles, Jamaica and Cuba have by far 

 the richest endemic faunas, whereas in Hayti and Porto 

 Kico the total number, as well as the number of endemic 

 species, is considerably smaller. Jamaica, therefore, with 

 its small area (one-tenth of that of Cuba, one-eighth of 

 that of Hayti, and a little more than that of Porto Rico), 

 and in spite of its more isolated position, contains on the 

 whole, so far as our present knowledge goes, the richest 

 fauna. 



This may, perhaps, be explained by the fact that between 

 the north-east corner of Honduras and Jamaica there 

 stretches a series of more or less shallow banks, so that a 

 comparatively slight elevation of the intervening sea- 

 bottom would very nearly connect Jamaica with the 

 mainland. 



Whether such a complete land-connection (or only an 



