Fauna of the Islands of Fernando de Noronha. 
868 
those islands. Upon Ilha Rapta there are no rats, but mice are 
even much more abundant than on the main island. If they con- 
stitute a plague upon the main island, what shall be said of them 
here? It is simply impossible to realize, without having seen and 
experienced them, how mice can exist in such numbers. I spent 
a night on this island, the guest of the three convicts occupying 
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the place at the time. My hammock was suspended in the solitary 
grass-thatched hut, and at night I tried to sleep there, but with 
very poor success. The mice were all over the floor of earth, in 
1 This island is usually and erroneously called Rat Island, an error 
due probably to the fact that the p in Rapta is silent, and is supposed 
mean rat, which it does not. Rapta is from the verb raptar, to steal, 
Rapta translated into English would be Robbers’ Island, or 
and Ilha 
literally, Stolen Island 
