474 CUBA. 



walk is almost absolutely plantigrade, and their 

 movements are slow, their hinder parts appearing 

 when in motion to be as embarrassed as the bear's.' 

 * They take occasional leaps, suddenly turning round 

 from head to tail, like the field mouse ; and they 

 gallop when at play, and make a noise with the soles 

 of their feet.' * They climb with ease, assisting them- 

 selves with their tails as a support, and they use the 

 same in descending.' ' They often raise themselves 

 to a listening posture, sitting erect, with the hands 

 hanging down, like rabbits and hares ; and in eating 

 they employ sometimes both, at other times one, of 

 their hands only.' "When the substance is small 

 enough to be held between their fingers and the 

 tubercle at the base of the thumb, the single hand is 

 then put in requisition. If the Jamaica species 

 should not prove to be the second Cuba one to which 

 Poppig has given the name of Capromys prehensilis, 

 and about which there exists some doubt among 

 naturalists, I should suggest C. hrachyurus as a dis- 

 tinctive name for our Cony. 



" I cannot much depend on the Negro statements 

 respecting its prehensile powers ; they represent 

 them as feeble, or not frequently put in requisition. 

 They seem to me only to have seen the Cony under 

 the hurry of alarm ; for they tell me, they will attempt 

 to scramble up trees, but generally fall back, unable 

 to make good their hold. I have observed the 

 Capromys of Cuba in ascent. Some three or four of 

 them confined in a capacious pen in which trees were 

 growing, were very familiar ; and being exposed to 

 no apprehension when looked at, or even when 



