448 SPANISH-TOWN. 



tic Rats. The animals which Buffon delineates, 

 and calls, La petite Fouine de la Guyane*; le 

 Grison de Surinam f ; la Grande Marte de la Guy- 

 ane | ; and le Touan§, might have been so mistaken : 

 especially the first and last, which have tails for half 

 their length naked and scaly, like those of rats. I 

 would venture to add to these, also, that strange 

 equivocal animal, known in Cayenne as the Crab- 

 dog II, the tail of which is altogethernaked and scaly. 

 This animal M. de la Borde mentions as being in 

 his time domesticated in the houses of the colonists, 

 with the dog and the cat, and living on the same 

 food with them, and doubtless performing common 

 service with them in ridding the dwelling of vermin. 

 This is the best history I can give of Sir Charles 

 Price's connexion with the large species of Rat, 

 which is said to be common here, and to bear his 

 name. If we have any of these Rodents more than 

 usually remarkable for size and ferocity, we [pro- 

 bably] owe them to the vessels of war, that, coming 

 hither from distant cruises when the West Indies 

 were the scenes of so many maritime conflicts, un- 

 loaded their stores at the naval magazines near 

 Kingston, and round on the north side at Port 

 Antonio, and so spread through the island the Rats 

 of Asia and Africa, as well as those of Europe and 

 America." 



Browne and Long both speak of a Rat in the 

 island bearing Sir Charles Price's name, but do not 



* Mustela Guayanensis, Lac. ; perhaps a young Coati. 



f Viverra vittatu, Linn. \ Mustela hurhata, Linn. 



§ Didelplujshrachyura, Vai.1,. || Diilclj>lii/s caucrivora, L.IS'S. 



