Article XIII. ON A COLLECTION OF MAMMALS 

 FROM THE ISLAND OF TRINIDAD, WITH DE- 

 SCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES. 



By J. A. ALLEN and FRANK M. CHAPMAN. 



This paper is based on a collection of about 200 specimens 

 made by the junior author during the months of March and 

 April, 1893. With few exceptions the species herein recorded 

 were secured in the south central part of the island, at a point 

 twelve miles north of the southern coast and seven miles south- 

 east of Princestown. Here, at the border of the forest which 

 reaches to the coast, is situated a Government rest-house. Col- 

 lecting was confined to within a radius of a mile of this rest- 

 house. Points where small streams entered the forest proved the 

 best collecting grounds. Here in close proximity were water, 

 the dense low growth of bordering balisiers (Heliconia), and the 

 forest itself. All the species secured near the rest-house doubt- 

 less might be taken in a short time within a radius of one hun- 

 dred feet in a locality of this nature. The indigenous species 

 secured here are doubtless all forest inhabiting. 



The collection of small Rodents is of special interest as con- 

 taining the results of perhaps one of the first attempts at system- 

 atic trapping of small mammals with the most approved traps. 

 The collector, however, was handicapped by entire ignorance of 

 the habits or even of the kinds of mammals which might be 

 found, and also by the fact that birds were the first object of his 

 efforts. Furthermore, at least one-third of the animals trapped 

 were destroyed by predatory mammals or ants. 



We believe, therefore, that, prolific as the field has proven, 

 further collecting in the same region would add many species 

 among the smaller Rodents. 



A future paper in this Bulletin will give a report on the birds 

 collected, and more fully describe the localities visited and the 

 faunal affinities of the island. 



Very little has been hitherto written especially upon the 

 mammals of Trinidad, and very few specimens known to have 



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