870 Fauna of the Islands of Fernando de Noronha. 
navigator, it is clearly impossible that these animals, if imported 
by the discoverer, could have multiplied in so short a time suffi- 
ciently to have attracted attention. Nothing is said of the mice, 
and it may therefore be that these are or are not aboriginal inhabit- 
ants of the island. But the rats are here, and the lizards with 
two tails, the only ones likely to attract the attention are here, 
and the Amphisbeena is here, an animal bearing such a resem- 
blance to a snake that by most people it is called a snake, even to 
this day. 
Where did these animals come from? Rats are world-wide in 
their distribution ; the species of lizard found here has never been 
found elsewhere ; Amphisbzena is abundant in Brazil, and in Africa, 
and one genus (Blanus) is found about the Mediterranean. If we 
suppose that they migrated from the Brazilian mainland, and that 
the Huprepes does occur, but has not yet been found there, a 
question as to method arises. Now as the ocean currents do not, 
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at any time of the year, set eastward, northeastward or southeast- 
ward from the eastern part of the South American continent in the 
direction of the island of Fernando de Noronha, the chance of 
such animals being carried from the Brazilian mainland are ex- 
tremely small. The island receives the currents from the south- 
western coast of Africa, as is shown in the accompanying cut; indeed 
the west flowing south equatorial current divides just about here, 
the current striking the island and flowing either to the northwest 
or to the southwest along the Brazilian mainland, according to the 
time of the year and the direction of the trade winds. The wind 
