CHARLES PRICE RAT. 447 



Luldas Vale, in St. John's, and he informed me 

 that, according to the family tradition, the animal 

 introduced by his ancestor was a substitute for the 

 Ferret. It had been found that the European Fer- 

 rets were rendered useless by their inability to over- 

 come the Chigoe infestment of the colony. Sir 

 Charles Price bethought him that if he could find an 

 animal in the country of the Chigoe, corresponding 

 to the Weasel of Europe, he would accomplish the 

 naturalisation of a Rat-destroyer with instincts ca- 

 pable of counteracting the plague of the parasitical 

 insect. He accordingly procured something from 

 South America, that in the eyes of the negroes had 

 strong rat characteristics, but which was no Rat. It 

 was of large size. Several were set at large about 

 the house at the Decoy, in St. Mary's, and at Wor- 

 thy Park, to establish themselves how they might. 

 It would seem that nothing came of the scheme, for 

 no animal allied to the Musteline group of quadru- 

 peds has been found naturalised in the colony. The 

 Poto, or Kinkajou, which Mr. Colinson communi- 

 cated to the Count de BufFon in a letter of the 12th 

 December, 1766, and described as having been taken 

 in the mountains of Jamaica, and of which he gave 

 BufFon a drawing, engraved in the 1st Edition of his 

 Natural History (the ord vol. of his Supplement), 

 is the nearest approach to an animal of this character 

 found here in a state of nature. 



" There are some three or four Viverrine animals of 

 South America, which Sir Charles Price might have 

 made experiments upon as substitutes for Ferrets, 

 and which the negroes might have considered gigan- 



