V. 



THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE BERMUDIAN FAUNA. 



Mr. Wallace, in " Island Life," has ably discussed the more 

 general features of the Bermudian fauna, and analyzed the 

 conditions which gave to the fauna its distinctive characters. 

 The new material which we were fortunate to obtain enables 

 us to enter further into the discussion, and to supplement and 

 expand the conclusions which had been reached from the 

 study of only a limited number of animal groups. 



In its broader aspects the Bermudian fauna is strictly non- 

 continental; it lacks those elements which we associate with 

 the animal life of any extended land area, while negativelj', in 

 the paucity of animal forms in general, it presents a character- 

 istic of, insular faunas. The deficiencies in both the higher and 

 the lower groups of animals are well marked, and the number 

 of special types I'epresented is not very great. The vast body of 

 water which separates these islands from the mainland has, as 

 might have been anticipated, largely prevented the crossing of 

 American animals, and this is true of all the groups except 

 volants. Barring the two species of whale — right-whale and 

 sperm-whale — which visit the waters of the archipelago, the 

 only "wild" mammalian forms of the region are bats, rats, 

 and a possible shrew (Sorex). The animal supposed to be a 

 shrew is referred to by Matthew Jones (Mammals of Bermuda, 

 Bull. U. S. National Museum, 1884), but unfortunately no 

 positive identification has been made. Four species of rat — 

 the brown or Norway rat, the black rat, the tree or roof rat 

 {Mas tectorum), and the common mouse (il/ws musculus) — are re- 



