1894
Feb. 27
(No 3)
Antigua
  The Mongoose has been introduced on Antigua
and is now very numerous and a terrible
scourge to the planters. It has utterly exterminated
the Quail, reduced the numbers of the Guinea Fowl
very seriously, made poultry raising well-nigh
impossible (the price of chickens and turkeys has
doubled within the past few years) and now it
is actually eating sugar cane and has developed
an especial and very ruinous fondness for pine
apples. In their desperation the planters have
resorted to a singular method of reducing the
numbers of this pernicious little beast. They
have trapped a number of the males and after
inoculating them with syphilis have set them
free again. The Englishman who told me all
this believes that this remedy will in time
prove effectual. He says that the Mongoose
has been turned out on nearly all the larger
islands of the Lesser Antilles except Montserrat.
[margin] Mongoose [/margin]

  On our way back to the ship I saw a pair
of Tringae which looked and flew like actitis.
They were on a small rocky island.
[margin] Spotted?
Sandpiper [/margin]

  Soon after reaching the steamer I saw my first
Frigate Birds - two of them - soaring in circles
over a volcanic peak about half a mile away.
Through the glass I made out their white
heads (both were young birds). Their flight
disappointed me but, probably I did not see it
under favorable conditions.
[margin] Frigate
Birds [/margin]