VOl 'lf5 XI1 ] Murphy, Birds of Trinidad Islet. 337 



the extermination of the goats themselves, a theory in harmony 

 with the facts, for water is undoubtedly scarcer at Trinidad than a 

 hundred years ago, while the last record of the goats is that of Sir 

 James Clark Ross, who saw one in 1839. A third of a century 

 earlier, in 1803, Captain Delano saw "plenty of goats and hogs," 

 and "some cats" (the only record). 



Other mammals of the island are mice, possibly introduced. 

 Excepting birds, the remaining vertebrates are sea turtles, which 

 lay their eggs in the warm sand of the beaches, and sea snakes, 1 

 reported by Knight as inhabiting the tidal pools. Crabs (Gecar- 

 cinus lagostomus) are by far the most abundant terrestrial animals, 

 swarming over the whole island, their burrows everywhere under- 

 mining the soil. These saffron-colored crustaceans made a pro- 

 found impression upon the imagination of Mr. Knight, who soon 

 found that he could not lie down to sleep without being attacked 

 by hordes of the creatures, which, he writes, "might well be the 

 restless spirits of the pirates themselves, for they are indeed more 

 ugly and evil, and generally more diabolical-looking than the 

 bloodiest pirate who ever lived." At night the only resource, he 

 states, was to rise and slaughter a large number of the crabs, when 

 the others would devour "their dead brethren, making a merry 

 crackling noise all round as they pulled the joints asunder and 

 opened the shells." The common tropical rock crab, Grapsus 

 maculatus, is found along the coastline of the island. Other living 

 creatures collected or mentioned by various visitors are earth- 

 worms, flies, roaches, ants, earwigs, moths, dragon-flies, and five 

 species of spiders. 



About sunset of April 7, 1913, I sighted Trinidad, forty miles to 



the northward, from the masthead of the whaler Daisy. Early 



next morning the gray pile lay right in our path, with the rocks of 



Martin Vas barely visible in the east. The order for lowering the 



boats was given; we left the Daisy in the offing, and pulled 



ahead, fired with enthusiasm, toward the white-lined coast. Three 



Man-o'-war Birds were winding in and out between the topgallant 

 ^ 



1 Perhaps, however, Knight's "sea snakes" are morays. Copeland, I. c, p. 276, 

 records the capture, "in den Wassertihnpeln des Riffs," of "einen seltsam gefleckten 

 Aal, weissundschwarz." The description fits the Atlantic spotted moray (Gymno- 



thorax). 



