( o9 ) 



ON A COLLECTION OE MAMMALS FEOM THE SMALL 

 ISLANDS OEF THE COAST OF WESTERN PANAMA. 



By OLDFIBLD THOMAS. 



AS with the interesting collection from Coibii Island worked out last year,* I 

 owe to the kindness of the Hon. Walter Rothschild the opportunity of 

 examining a series of mammals obtained by the same collector, ]\Ir. J. H. Batty, on 

 the smaller islands off the same coast, but of the western part of Panama. 



The islands visited are all quite small, and close to the mainland, and their fauna 

 would appear to be practically the same as that of the latter, without any marked 

 insular specialisation. At the same time this collection is liardly complete enough, 

 especially in the smaller and more plastic forms, to enable me to make this assertion 

 very positively. 



The only new species, the Porcupine {Cueiuloit rothschUdi), is a highly 

 interesting one, as it belongs to a groui) not hitherto known to occur in Central 

 America at all. Whether it also is found on the mainland, or is confined to the 

 islands on which Mr. Batty obtained it, remains to be seen. 



A very important i)aper on the mammals of the mainland opjiosite these islands 

 has recently been published by Mr. Bangs,t and it is this paper that is meant when 

 his name is referred to below. 



In the following list the figures following the names of the islands represent the 

 number of the specimens, which it has not been thought worth while to enumerate 

 separately. 



1. Alouatta palliata Gray. 

 Sevilla, 5 ; Almijas, 1 ; lusoleta, 2. 



Like mainland specimens, these Howlers are larger than the small insular form 

 of Coiba I., A. p. colbeasis, Thos. 



2. Saimiri oerstedi Keinh. 



Sevilla, 3 ; Almijas. 15. 



3. Molossus obscurus (ieoff. 

 Gobernador, 1. 



4. Hemiderma perspicillatum Linn. 

 Sevilla, 4; Jicaron, o ; Gobernador, 1 ; Brava, ; lusoleta, 2 ; Cebaco, 4. 



5. Glossophaga soricina Pall. 

 Gobernador, 4; Insoleta, 1; Jicaron, 3; Palemjue, 1; Bra\a, IG; Parida, 2; 

 Bocjuerou, 1 ; Cebaco, 17. 



» .Nov. ZoOL. iK. p. 135. 1'.IU2. ] am informed bolli by .Mr. Batty anil my Chiriqui corrosiiondenl, 

 Mr, n. ,J. Watson, tliat thcni arc ?io email mamiiiiils on CoWa hlaiul, a most ruraarkable and iiitcrusliny 

 fact. Probably at some period of its liistory Ibe island was lowered to such an extent as to drown m\, 

 all burrowing and terrestrial animals, wbile Icavinj; sueh species as citlier were arboreal (Monkeys and 

 Opcssum), or were able to live in some slight depth ui water or swampy soil (^Odocuilcus, DasiJiirocta.). 



t li'iU. MiiH. Htinurd. x.-i.-cix. p. 17. rJ02. 



