MAMMALS OF THE BAHAMA ISLANDS 



BY 



GERRIT S. MILLER, JR., 

 Assistant Curator, Division of Mammals, U. 8. National Museum. 



INTRODUCTION. 



On Wednesday, October 17, 1492, some of Columbus's men are reported 

 to have seen " dogs, mastiffs, and hounds," which belonged to the inhabitants 

 of Long Island, then Fernandina, Bahamas. 1 Fernandina was the third island 

 visited by the explorers, and these dogs, the first animals other than fish and 

 birds mentioned in the journal of the voyage, are the first American mammals 

 recorded by Europeans. No strictly wild mammals were seen by Columbus in 

 this group of islands, as he did not become acquainted with hutias until after 

 he arrived in Cuba. Even at this time, therefore, the Bahamas seem to have 

 been almost destitute of conspicuous mammalian life, while now, after the 

 lapse of four centuries, we know only eight mammals whose presence on the 

 Islands is not certainly due to man. This paucity of information is partly due 

 to the undoubted absence of many species that occur in the Greater Antilles, 

 but it is due even more to the fact that the collectors who have visited the 

 Islands have given very little attention to the mammals. 2 Under these circum- 

 stances a list of the mammals of the Bahamas must be more a record of ignor- 

 ance than a record of facts; ignorance which is surprising when we recall that 

 on these same Islands Columbus saw the first mammals of the New World. 



The most important collection of Bahama mammals is that made by 

 Mr. J. H. EHey and Mr. S. H. Derickson, while accompanying the Expedition 

 of the Geographical Society of Baltimore in the summer of 1903. This 

 contains over two hundred specimens, one hundred and eighty-five of which 

 are now in the U. S. National Museum, representing six of the ten species known 



'The Journal of Christopher Columbus (during his first voyage, 1492-1493), 

 p. 50. Hakluyt Society, London, 1893. 



2 Mammals have been collected on about one-fourth of the islands of the group: 

 Andros, Eleuthera, Little Abaco, Long Island, New Providence, Plana Keys, and 

 Watlings Island. 



