94 YEARBOOK OF TEE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



tried, but apparently witli little success, until in FeTjruary, 1872, Mr. 

 W. Bancroft Espeut introduced nine individuals of the mongoose, four 

 males and five females, from India. These animals increased with 

 remarkable rapidity, and soon spread to all parts of the island, even 

 to the tops of the highest mountains. A decrease in the number of 

 rats Avas soon noticeable, and in 1882, ten years after the first intro- 

 duction, the saving to the sugar planters was said to be £45,000, or 

 $225,000, per annum. 



Still the mongoose increased, and its omnivorous habits became 

 more and more apparent as the rats diminished. It destroyed young 

 pigs, kids, lambs, kittens, puppies, the native "coney," or capromys, 

 poulti-y, game, birds which nested on or near the ground, eggs, snakes, 

 ground lizards, frogs, turtles' eggs, and land crabs. It was also known 

 to eat ripe bananas, pineapples, young corn, avocado pears, sweet 

 potatoes, cocoanuts, and other fruits. Toward the close of the second 

 decade the mongoose, originally considered very beneficial, came to 

 be regarded as the greatest pest ever introduced into the island. 

 Poultry and domesticated animals suffered from its dejiredations, and 

 the short-tailed capromys ( Crqrrornys brackyurus), which was formerly 

 numerous, became almost extinct except in some of the mountainous 

 districts. The ground dove {ColumbigalUna ixisserina) and the quail 

 dove ( Geotrygon montana) became rare, and the introduced bobwhite, 

 or quail, was almost exterminated. The peculiar Jamaica petrel 

 {^strelata ccwibbcea), which nested in the mountains of the island, 

 likewise became almost exterminated. Snakes, represented by at 

 least five species, all harmless, and lizards, including about twenty 

 species, were greatly diminished in numbers. The same thing was 

 true of the land and fresh-water tortoises and the marine turtle 

 {Chelone viridis), which formerly laid its eggs in abundance in the 

 loose sand on the north coast. The destruction of insectivorous 

 birds, snakes, and lizards was followed b}' an increase in several 

 injurious insects, particularly ticks, which became a serious pest, 

 and a Coccid moth, the larvse of which bore into the pimento trees. 

 In 1890 a commission was appointed by the Government to consider 

 whether measures should be taken to reduce the number of the 

 animals, and the evidence collected showed conclusively that the evil 

 results of the introduction of the mongoose far outweighed the bene- 

 fits rendered to the sugar and coffee plantations. 



Recently there has been a change in the situation, and the mon- 

 goose is now reported as decreasing, while certain birds and reptiles, 

 particularly the gi'ound lizard, are increasing, (^uail and pigeons 

 are reported as more numerous, and there is less complaint concerning 

 the destruction of poultry. Thus, Jamaica seems to have passed the 

 liigh-water mark of loss occasioned by rats and by the mongoose, and 

 while its fauna has been modified by the jjresence of the intruders, 

 both native and introduced species are gradually accommodating 



