2^8 Mr. E. A. Smitli and Cul. II. W. Fcilden on 



sc^^aratecl from the chain of the Lesser Antllle.5 or the main- 

 land of South America by any considerable expanse of ocean, 

 yet its geological structure shows that it can hxy claim to 

 being a truly oceanic island, in the sense of its not having 

 been connected with the continent since the introduction of 

 its present, comparatively speaking, meagre fauna *. 



A critical examination of the mammals and reptiles now- 

 inhabiting Barbados shows their comparatively recent intro- 

 duction, and a review of its avifauna does not point to a 

 different conclusion, which is confirmed by this reference to 

 the land and freshwater MoUusca. Tlie species obtained by 

 one of the authors (Colonel Feilden) in Barbados during 

 1888-89 are marked in this list by an asterisk. We do not 

 assert that some species may not have been overlooked by 

 him, and in consequence retain in our list several whose 

 claims appear to us open to question ; these are specifically 

 referred to in this paper. 



Only two lists of the shells of Barbados have hitherto 

 appeared — that by Thomas Bland in the ' Annals of the 

 Lyceum of Natural History of New York,' 1862, vol. vii. 

 p. 851, and that by Kobelt in the ' Jahrbiicher der deutschen 

 Malakozoologischen Gesellschaft ' for 1880, p. 284, which is 

 mainly based upon Bland's Catalogue, and contains only 

 one additional terrestrial species, "JJf/nh'na inci'sa,^^ and two 

 supposed freshwater forms, Neritina vircjinia and Y. viridis, 

 of which the former, however, lives in salt or brackish water, 

 and the latter is truly marine. 



In the following list altogether thirty-one species are 

 enumerated. At- present only five appear to be peculiar to 

 Barbados, namely: — Vitrea iiici'sa, TnincateJla harhadensis, 

 Ilelicina harhadensis^ Ilelicina conoidea, and Physa granulata. 

 The last three of these are included in the fauna on the 

 grounds that the specimens were labelled " Barbados " in 

 Cuming's collection, a collection somewhat notorious for errors 

 of locality. Although those species in reality may have 

 come from this island, there will always be a doubt attached 

 to them until their presence there is confirmed. 



The fauna is, as might be anticipated, very like that of the 

 neighbouring islands. Two or three of the species are found 

 in tSt. Vincents, four in Grenada, five in St. Lucia, eight in 

 Trinidad, nine in i\lartinique, and ten occur in various jdaces 

 in the north vi South America. 



What proportion of these last may have migrated from the 

 islands to the continent or vice versa it is iuqjossiblc to say. 



• Feilden, Ibis, 1889, p. 478; id. Zoologist, 1889, p. l^Jo ; id. ibid. 1890, 



p. ;')12. 



