Introduction. 



This paper forms the first in a series dealing with the faunistic results of zoolo- 

 gical studies I have made in tlie Bahamas. My stay in these islands lasted from the end 

 of April ] 908 to the beginning of the same month the following year. The visit was 

 paid in order to make zoological collections and to study the animal life in various 

 parts of the Islands. Several points of interest presented themselves: the land fauna 

 of the different islands, the fauna of the coral reefs, and the fauna in the brackish 

 and salt ponds, a problem which I think is of the greatest interest, but which I 

 unfortunately got no opportunities of studying, having been prevented by two ter- 

 rible hurricanes. The small means with which I had to work compelled me to give 

 up all thoughts of studying the deep-sea fauna and also, as was later shown to be 

 necessary, of visiting all the islands. I spent the whole year of my visit on New 

 Providence and Andros, especially working at Mastic Point on the last named island. 

 In the winter I paid a short visit also to the western side of Andros. Collections 

 were made of almost all orders of animals, the shore at high and low water was 

 studied, the coral reefs with their fauna, on land reptiles, shells, spiders and other 

 animals were collected, as well as representatives of the somewhat poor mammal 

 fauna, and several bird skins were prepared. My collections are all in the Zoological 

 Museum of the University of Lund. 



In the first part of this paper (I) I intend to give a general sketch of the features of 

 the fauna, and of the different formation in which it is found. For the right under- 

 standing of the fauna of an island it is necessary to know the formation of the 

 island, whether it is of an oceanic or continental origin. For this purpose I am giving 

 in a separate chapter a short account of what is known on that point together with 

 some remarks about the observations I have made as to that question. Short notes 

 on previous zoological studies in the Bahamas will form a first chapter. In the 

 two following parts (II and III) I am describing the reptiles and fishes of the is- 

 lands. Other orders will later on be worked up either by me or by other zoologists, 

 and the results thereof published in other papers. A parasitic gastropod, found in a 

 holothuria, has already been described by me ^. 



' Rosén, Zur Kenntnis der parasitischen Schnecken. Fysiografiska Sällskapets Handlingar. 

 Lund. N. F. Bd 21. (1910). 



