228 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. VII; 



island. Far different, however, is the Jamaica rat, 

 which is a most dreadful pest to that island. In a 

 book published on that island*, is the following account 

 of this animal : " In no country is there a creature 

 so destructive of property as the rat is in Jamaica ; 

 their ravages are inconceivable. One year with an- 

 other, it is supposed that they destroy, at least, about a 

 twentieth part of the sugar-canes throughout the island, 

 amounting to little short of 200,000/. currency per 

 annum. The sugar cane is their favourite food ; but 

 they also prey upon the Indian corn, on all the fruits 

 that are accessible to them, and on many of the roots. 

 Some idea will be formed of the immense swarms of 

 these destructive animals that infest this island, from 

 the fact that, on a single plantation, 30,000 were de- 

 stroyed in one year. They are of much larger size than 

 the European rat."t In Java, there is a bat (Pteropus 

 Javanicus) which, in its nocturnal depredations, de- 

 stroys, indiscriminately, every kind of fruit. 



(240.) The immense herds of springbock antelopes 

 in Southern Africa, which have been already described 

 as migrating in countless numbers, are oftentimes a real 

 scourge to the settlers. It is scarcely possible for a 

 person traversing some of the extensive tracts of the in- 

 terior, and seeing this elegant antelope thinly scattered 

 over the plains, to persuade himself that these ornaments 

 of the desert can often become as destructive as the lo- 

 custs themselves. The incredible numbers which some- 

 times pour -in from the north during protracted droughts, 

 distress the farmer inconceivably. Any attempt at nu- 

 merical computation would be vain ; and, by trying to 

 come near the truth, the writer would subject himself, 

 in the estimation of those who have no knowledge of 

 the country, to a suspicion of exaggeration. And yet 

 it is well known in the interior, that, on the approach 

 of the springbock, the grazier is obliged to seek pasture 

 for his flocks elsewhere ; and that he considers himself 



* Cited in No. V. of the Zoo.. Journ. 

 t Steward's Jamaica, p. 57. et seq. 

 : Dr. Horsli eld's Zool Researches. 



