A.LLEN: MA.MMAl.s OF THE WEST INDTKS. 217 



but set traps for them, which they do with infinite art and ease. 

 Numbers of the negroes roast these animals in the stoke-holes, and 

 eat them; and I have been informed by men of character, who have 

 tasted of them, that they arc very delicate meat." 



Epimys NORVEGICUS (Erxleben). 



Mus norvegicus Erxleben, Syst. Regni Anim., 1777, 1, p. 381. 



The brown rat seems to be less common in some at least of the 

 islands than the black and the roof rats. Chapman (1897, p. 30) 

 records the capture of two specimens in Dominica. 



Gundlach (1866-7, p. 55) a half century ago considered this more 

 abundant and destructive than the black or the roof rat in Cuba. 

 He writes that it lives more in holes in the ground ; and not only kills 

 the domestic fowls, but gnaws the sugar canes to such an extent as to 

 effect serious damage. 



Fielden (1890) says this is an abundant species in Barbados, where 

 he had found no other. 



VIVERRIDAE. 



Mungos birmanicus (Thomas). 



Herpestes auropunctatus birmanicus Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. 

 Hist., 1886, ser. 5, 17, p. 84. 



In 1872, W. Bancroft Espeut imported four pairs of mongoose from 

 Calcutta to Jamaica, for the purpose of destroying the rats that 

 caused so great a destruction of sugar-cane. These four pairs in- 

 creased so rapidly, and attacked the rats with such ardor, that ten 

 years later it was estimated that they effected an annual saving to 

 the colony of 100,000 pounds sterling. Shortly after, however, they 

 had so reduced the rats that they fell upon the native ground animals, 

 and nearly annihilated certain toads, lizards, birds, and mammals. 

 Even young pigs, lambs, kittens, and newly dropped calves w r ere 

 said to have been killed by them; and their diet included also various 

 fruits and even sugar-cane. In consequence of the destruction of 

 the toads and lizards, it is said (Howard, Science, new ser., 1897, 6, 

 p. 384), the ticks became so abundant and so infested the mongoose 

 that its numbers soon lessened greatly. Duerden, however (Journ. 



