THE TERRESTRIAL MAMMALS OF BARBADOS. 53 



borne out on investigation. The Monkey which he suggested to 

 be a South American species, and which is still found in some 

 numbers in the more inaccessible parts of the island, is an Old 

 World form, the Green Monkey, Cercopithecus callitrichus, Is. 

 Geoffr., and its original habitat is the West of Africa. This 

 undoubtedly proves its introduction to Barbados by the Guinea 

 trading-ships. I cannot discover any warrant for Schomburgk's 

 statement that this animal was found in large numbers by the 

 first settlers on their arrival. Ligon, in his ' True and Exact 

 History of Barbados,' published in 1657, only thirty-two years 

 after the landing of the first settlers, makes no mention of a 

 Monkey in his remarks on the birds, beasts, and insects of the 

 island, and it is unreasonable to suppose that a writer of his 

 undoubted sagacity and power of observation, particularly with 

 reference to all the living creatures he met with, should have 

 neglected to make some remarks about a Monkey, had it then 

 been found in large numbers in the island. Hughes, in his 

 * Natural History of Barbados,' published 1750, includes the 

 Monkey, so that it must have been introduced, and become feral 

 in the island between the periods of these two writers. 



The Eacoon, which is still found in the cliffs, glens, and 

 rocky parts of the island in considerable numbers, is, as might be 

 expected, the South American form, Procyon cancrivorus ; its 

 introduction from the South American continent, on a raft drifted 

 by the influence of oceanic currents is possible, though its 

 presence may be due to the direct agency of man. I am not 

 aware that this animal is found in a state of nature in any 

 other West Indian island, which is another proof of its recent 

 introduction to Barbados. 



I only met with one species of Rat, abundant enough about 

 the town of Bridgetown and in the Garrison — namely, Mus 

 decumanus. 



I entirely failed, in spite of assistance from several friends, — 

 planters in the island, — to obtain any evidence of an indigenous 

 Mouse. I received many examples captured in the fields, and 

 caught several myself; they all proved to be the common House 

 Mouse, Mus musculus, though their coats were in some instances 

 redder than usual — the result, probably, of greater exposure 

 to a tropical sun than their stay-at-home relatives enjoy. This 

 negative evidence does not preclude the possibility of there 



