ZOOLOGY OF FERNANDO NORONIIA. 



477 



as common as on the mainland. It swarms everywhere, and is 

 so tame tliat it is often caught by the hand. I have seen one in 

 the evening on the top of the inflorescence of a Crotalaria, 

 apparently devouring the young seed-pods. Albinos are oftea 

 seen. There being no birds or beasts of prey to keep these 

 animals in check, and food being particularly abundant, they 

 have increased enormously, and one of the employments of a 

 convict is to capture a certain number of rats and mice once a 

 month. At tlie monthly rat-hunt while we were on the island 

 over 3900 were taken ; but we were assured that, in the dry 

 season, when the herbage which covered the greater part of the 

 island was dried up and burnt, the mice were compelled to leave 

 their holes, and many more were taken. The hunts are then 

 undertaken weekly, and 20,000 have been caught in a day. The 

 bodies are piled up in the square after evening service, and the 

 numbers counted. 



The Cat is said to have become feral on the main island ; and 

 on Eat Island and one or two of the other islands we saw a large 

 black Cat which had escaped from an Italian vessel wrecked 

 there, and which had run wild. 



In Amerigo Yespucci's account of the island above quoted, he 

 mentions " Mures quam maximir What these were we cannot 

 now determine, but it is highly improbable that they were Mu8 

 rattus. 



A species of Dolphin was constantly seen in ISan Antonio Bay 

 and also off Eat Island. One was captured during our visit ; its 

 stomach contained many cuttlefish and prawns, the latter very 

 similar to the common edible prawn of Pernambuco. Whales 

 also passed within sight of the island on one occasion, but we 

 did not see them. 



AVES. 



By E. BowDLER Sharpe, F.L.S., &c., 

 Assistant in the Zoological Department, British Museum. 



The birds of the island are not very numerous as regards 

 species, and apparently there are only three indigenous Land- 

 birds. The species of Sea-birds found by Mr. Eidley are 

 precisely what one might have looked for, but it is a little 

 remarkable that no Petrel was observed. 



