DANGER OF INTRODUCING NOXIOUS ANIMALS AND BIRDS. 95 



themselves to the changed conditions, and a new balance of nature 

 is being established.^ 



According to Mr. Espent,- who oi-iginally introduced the mongoose 

 into Jamaica, large numbers of the animals have been sent to Cuba, 

 Puerto Rico, Grenada, Barbados, Santa Cruz, and elsewliere, but the 

 fate of these shipments, made at least sixteen years ago, is now un- 

 known. It is now established on Haiti, as shown by the capture of a 

 specimen at Santo Domingo City in the winter of 1895,^ and is gen- 

 erally distributed over the island of Puerto Rico. It is also present 

 on the island of Vieques, east of Puerto Rico, and is abundant on 

 St. Thomas. During a recent visit Mr. A. V>. Baker found it along 

 the coast of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, San Juan, Fa.jardo, Arroyo, 

 Ponce, and Mayague/, and in the interior at Utuado and Ad.juntas. 

 It was introduced at San Juan about 1877-79, and althougli now 

 becoming a nuisance, is considered beneficial by the sugar planters 

 who claim that the rats, whicli were formei-lj'^ very destructive to 

 cane, now do little damage. These rats often live in the tops of 

 the royal and cocoa j)alms and destroy cocoanuts as well as sugar 

 cane. 



The first efforts to introduce the mongoose into the Hawaiian Islands 

 were made about 1881, when a few individuals of a large species were 

 brought from the East Indies and liberated on a sugar plantation in 

 the district of Hamakua on Hawaii. These animals did not breed 

 and soon disappeared. A few months later a few pairs of a smaller 

 species were imported from Calcutta, but nearly all were accidentally 

 drowned while being landed near Hilo. Soon afterwards 75 individ- 

 uals were imported from Jamaica by the planters of Hilo, and later 

 215 more were imported for Hamakua. Here the mongoose is aiding 

 in the rapid extermination of some of the native birds, liarticularlj^ 

 the Hawaiian goose {Xesoclien scmdvicensis), which is found only on 

 those islands above an altitude of 4,000 feet, and the Hawaiian duck 

 {Anas ivyvillicum), also a iDeculiar species. According to Mr. II. W. 

 Henshaw this duck was common about Hilo four years ;igo, but in 

 1898 none were left anywhere in this region. As in Jamaica, the 

 depredations of rats in the cane fields diminished with the increase of 

 the mongoose, but the latter soon became so abundant that measures 

 became necessary to keep it under control. In 1892 a law was passed 

 forbidding the introduction, breeding, or keeping of the mongoose in 

 the islands, and the sum of 81,000 was api^ropriated for the ijayment 

 of bounties on animals killed on the island of Oahu. These rewards, 

 not to exceed 25 cents jper head, were to be i)aid by the Minister of 

 the Interior, but apiDarently no applications were made for them, the 

 animals being regarded as a necessary evil in the sugar-cane districts. 



'See Duerclen. Journ. Inst. Jamaica, II, 1896, pp. 273-275. 



•Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1S82. p. 714. 



-'Elliott, Field Columbian Mns., Zool. Ser., I, 1896, p. 82. 



