THE BAHAMA ISLANDS 379 



Mr. Riley's notes on this raccoon are as follows : " Raccoons were said to 

 be abundant on New Providence and we saw a number of tracks in a mangrove 

 swamp about twelve miles west of Nassau. They are said to be very destructive 

 to sweet potatoes and other crops, in fact a nuisance. Though I offered to buy 

 a series and pay a good price, only one poor specimen was brought off to the 

 ship. The natives said they needed good dogs to tree them and there seemed to 

 be only one man who possessed this desideratum. The chase must be attended 

 with considerable danger, as the going is bad enough in the day-time over rotten 

 coral rock or ground full of pot-holes, and T shudder to think what it must be 

 at night. I was informed by everyone that I conversed with on the subject, 

 that there is a tradition that this animal had been introduced by one of the 

 large plantation owners many, many years ago, but from where there seemed 

 to be complete uncertainty. I was told Florida, but this seemed to be only a 

 conjecture." 



BATS. 



VESPEKUGO FUSOUS BAHAMENSIS, Miller. 

 Vesperugo fuscus Allen, 1890, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. iii, p. 169. Not 



Vespertilio fuscus Beauvois. 

 Vespertilio fuscus bahamensis Miller, 1897, North American Fauna, No. 12, p. 101. 



Known from New Providence only. The group to which the species 

 belongs is almost cosmopolitan. 



The series of twelve skins procured by Mr. Riley, makes possible a com- 

 parison of the color of this bat with that of V. fuscus Allen. While some 

 individuals are scarcely distinguishable, the Bahama animal averages notice- 

 ably more yellow, and the fur is more clouded by the dark bases of the hairs. 

 There is no approach to the dark, rich color of the Cuban species. 



Of the Bahama Vespertilio, Mr. Maynard writes : " On March 22, 1893, 

 when in company with my friend, the late Geo. L. Curtiss, I visited the 

 so-called dungeons of old Fort Charlotte, just to the westward of Nassali, we 

 found a hole in the roof of one of them absolutely filled with bats. There 

 were several hundred gathered there, clinging one to the other, much like 

 swarming bees, occupying a space about the size of a bushel basket. Mr. 

 Curtiss caught over seventy-five with one swoop of his insect net. We were 

 told by the keeper of the fort that the bats were always in that same place in 

 winter. On April 2, of the same year, I found a number of the same species 

 in some caves near where I saw the leaf-nosed Bat, but did not find any of this 

 latter-named species, either there or in the old locality at that time." 



