JAMAICA. 195 



"quaintancc is only general. Our vertebrate animals 

 "consist but of the agouti, Dasyprocta ; and the aleo, 

 " a dog now extinct, but common as a domestic com- 

 "panion of the Indians at the time of the discovery. 

 " You will find that it was a curly-haired, brown variety 

 " of the Mexican terrier, now so generally known as 

 "the favourite lap-dog called the Mexican mopsy, the 

 " Mexican being the white woolly variety. Our reptiles 

 " are not numerous, but they are new to the naturalist ; 

 " the alligator and the pretty changeable anolis, with the 

 "dilatable gorge, being almost the only ones yet de- 

 " scribed to European readers. Our fishes have scarcely 

 "been made the subject of investigation. Dr. Parnell, 

 " of the British Museum, who was in this island some 

 " four years ago, attended, however, exclusively to this 

 "field of inquiry, in conjunction with the reptiles. On 

 "your return to Europe, you will be able to determine 

 " from your own observations in these two departments 

 " of vertebrata by the ascertained species in the British 

 " Museum. 



" I have nearly completed a series of papers on the 

 " migratory instincts of birds, with a view of illus- 

 " trating our ornithology, intending, after the manner of 

 " Alfred de Malherbe in his Faune Ornithologique de la 

 " Sicile, to describe what was particularly our own, and 

 " to direct attention to the published descriptions already 

 "known of those that were common to us and the 

 " neighbouring continent. 



" In o\ix Jamaica Almanac, from 1840 to 1843 inclusive, 

 "you will see all that I have published on our local 

 "natural history, if I except some few papers on 

 "insects in the Royal Agricultural Society's Reporter. 

 " I write you hurriedly, having our quarter sessions 

 " sitting, and with little time at my disposal ; but I 



