ALLEN: MAMMALS OF THE WEST [NDIES. 213 



Loncheres armatus (I. Geoffroy). 



Nelomys wrma&us I. Geoffrey, Ann. Sci. Nat., Zool., 1838, ser. 2, 10, 

 p. 125. 



The occurrence of a spiny rat in the island of Martinique seems 

 first to have been made known by Dr. F. W. True, who, in 1885, 

 published a note on a specimen procured there by F. A. Ober, and 

 received in 1878, with other collections, by the U. S. National Museum. 

 Apparently no direct comparisons with other species were made; 

 but from the published descriptions, Dr. True was "inclined to be- 

 lieve that the specimen should be classed with L. armatus." Dr. 

 True at that time believed the species to have been recently introduced 

 into the island, and considered it not unlikely that many small rodents 

 were from time to time brought over by sailing vessels from the 

 South American continent to these islands. 



On the other hand, Mr. Austin H. Clark, who collected for some 

 weeks on Martinique in 1904, states that the natives of the island 

 assured him that a spiny rat was to be found there, though he ob- 

 tained none. This bit of evidence may indicate that the species is 

 really indigenous, and still survives in this one of the Lesser Antillean 

 Islands. 



MURIDAE. 



Oryzomys antillarum Thomas. 



Oryzomys antillarum Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1898, ser. 7, 

 1, p. 177. 



This Jamaican species is based on a single specimen in the British 

 Museum, collected by P. H. Gosse some time prior to 1850. Two 

 skins in the collection of the U. S. National Museum are also noted 

 by Thomas as mentioned by Coues (Coues and Allen, Monographs 

 of North American Rodentia, 1877, p. 116, footnote). These two 

 were collected about 1877, five years after the introduction of the 

 mongoose. Since this date no specimens seem to have been taken, 

 and it is perhaps nearly, if not quite, extinct. No trace of this genus 

 has ever been found on the other Greater Antilles, although Dobson 

 (Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1884, p. 234, footnote) gives " Hesperomys 

 'palustris" as a species of Cuba, or of Jamaica, or both, believing it 

 to have been introduced from the United States. Probably this 



