NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 89 



lies in the advent of the ubiquitous Norway rat and the blood- 

 thirsty mongoose." 



Doubtless this is the field mouse described by P. H. Gosse 

 in his "Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica" (Gosse and Hill, 1851) 

 as of a "beautiful reddish colour, with a milk-white belly." 

 "It takes up its habitation chiefly about the hollow roots of 

 large trees, and the rocky acclivities of gullies and river banks. 

 It is far from numerous." The type specimen in the British 

 Museum was collected by Gosse in 1845. 



ST. VINCENT RICE RAT 

 ORYZOMYS VICTUS Thomas 



Oryzomys victus Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. 1, p. 178, Feb., 1898 ("St. 

 Vincent, Lesser Antilles"). 



Thomas, in describing this species, wrote: "It is difficult to 

 say to what species this mouse is most nearly allied." At that 

 time he compared it with the South American Oryzomys longi- 

 caudatus, giving it the following characters: Size and propor- 

 tions about as in 0. longicaudatus; color dark rufous, but this 

 probably affected by the alcohol in which the type is preserved ; 

 below, buffy white, the hairs with slate-colored bases. Length 

 of head and body, 96 mm. ; tail, 121 ; hind foot without claw, 25 ; 

 basal length of skull, 23.8. 



The type and only known specimen was presented to the 

 British Museum by F. DuCane Godman in 1897. Since that 

 time no further attempt to determine the nearer affinities of 

 the specimen has been made, nor have any additional examples 

 been taken. It therefore still remains problematical whether 

 it is a native or an introduced animal, what its continental 

 relatives are, and whether it still exists on the island. Since 

 no representative of the genus is known from any other of the 

 Lesser Antilles, it may prove to have been introduced in St. 

 Vincent through local trade from some adjacent part of South 

 America; on the other hand, the type specimen collected by 

 H. H. Smith was marked by him "forest rat," implying its 

 existence in wooded areas on the island. Goldman (1918, p. 87) 

 in speaking of it, says: "This rice rat seems likely to be en- 

 dangered by the presence of the mongoose, if it has not already 

 been exterminated since the introduction of that indiscrimi- 

 nately destructive animal." 



