4^6 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
black thrush or blackbird, and the great titmouse or 
kohlmeise, are likely to prove injurious in new surround- 
ings. Most of these species have extended their range 
from the east toward the west, although the minas have 
heen carried in the opposite direction to New Zealand and 
the Hawaiian Islands, and living foxes are likely to ex- 
tend northward and eastward. The main danger for the 
United States lies in species native to central and 
southern Europe and western Asia, but tropical species, 
particularly of India, might become acclimated in the 
Southern States. In order to show how these animals 
and birds have already spread, and the damage they have 
done, it will be necessary to refer briefly to the history 
of each species. 
Rats and Mice. 
Rats and mice are among the greatest pests with which 
man has to contend, and the annoyance and damage which 
they occasion are beyond computation. They are ubi- 
quitous, abundant alike in the largest cities and on the 
most distant islands of the sea. They have not been in- 
tentionally introduced anywhere, but have found their 
way by means of vessels to all parts of the earth. Small 
islands, populated with rats from wrecks, or otherwise, 
are occasionally overrun by these animals. On the Is- 
land of Aldabra, already mentioned, rats fairly swarm, 
and are very destructive to the gigantic native land tor- 
toise, eating the young as soon as they are hatched. Sable 
island, off the coast of Nova Scotia, has sufiered from 
several plagues of rats, and it is said that the first super- 
intendent of the light station and his men were at one 
time threatened with starvation owing to the inroads made 
on their stores by rats. 
The Common Brown Rat. — The common brown rat, 
known, also as the wharf rat and Norway rat {Mus 
decumanus), was originally a native of western China," 
and until 200 years ago was unknown in Europe or 
America. It is very prolific, producing from four to 
twelve young at a birth several times a year, and has 
spread so rapidly that at the present time it is nearly cos- 
mopolitan. In the autumn of 1727 large numbers of 
brown rats entered Europe by swimming across the Volga, 
and, gaining a foothold in the Province of Astrakan in 
eastern Russia, spread westward over central Europe. 
Five years later (1732) they reached England by vessels 
from western India. The brown rat appeared in east 
Prussia about 1750, and in Denmark and Switzerland in 
i8og. It reached the eastern coast of the United States 
about 1775, and in 1825, according to Sir John Richard- 
son, had extended as far west in Canada as Kingston, 
Ontario. By 1855 it was abundant at several points on the 
Pacific Coast, including San Francisco, Cal. ; Astoria, 
Ore., and Steilacoon, Wash., and its range on the west 
ttoast now extends as far north as Alaska, at Sitka, 
Kadiak and even Unalaska. At the present time it is prob- 
ably abundant in all the larger cities of the United States 
except in the South, where it is replaced by another 
. species. 
The Black, or House, Rat. — The black rat, or house rat 
(Mus rattus) , was in all probability originally a native of 
Asia. The time of its introduction into Europe is un- 
certain, but in the middle ages it was the common house 
rat of central Europe. The date of its introduction into 
the New World is placed as early as 1544, or more than 
200 years previous to that of the brown rat. It evidently 
became very generally distributed along the coasts and in 
the principal seaports, and by the middle of the present 
century was known as far north as Halifax and Mont- 
real, Canada, and on the Pacific Coast, at San Diego and 
Humboldt Bay, California. Since the introduction of the 
brown rat, the black rat has become comparatively rare 
in most places where the former is abundant. In the 
Laccadive Islands, in the Indian Ocean, the black rat 
seems to have modified its habits and become arboreal. 
It is said to live in the crowns of the cocoanut trees with- 
out descending to the ground, and to do great damage by 
biting off the nuts, upon which it feeds, before they 
are ripe. 
The Roof, or White-Bellied, Rat.— The roof rat, or 
white-bellied rat (Mus alexandrinus) , is a native of 
Egypt, Nubia and northern Africa, and evidently found 
its way to America by way of Italy and Spa'in at an early 
date. It probably reached this continent long before the 
brown rat, but the exact date of its arrival is uncertain. 
It is common in Brazil, in some parts of Mexico, and in 
the southern United States, and is known to occur at 
least as far north as the Dismal Swamp, in southern 
"Virginia. 
The House Mouse. — ^The well-known house mouse 
{Mus musculus) is readily distinguished from the native 
white-bellied mice of North America by its nearly uni- 
form brownish color above and below. It is a native of 
Europe and central Asia, but now occurs all over the 
world. In the United States it is found from Florida to 
Maine, and from San Diego to the Pribilof Islands. It 
is not restricted to the seaports; as it made its way in- 
land at an early date. Sir John Richardson, in 1829, men- 
tions having seen a dead mouse in the storehouse of the 
Hudson Bay Company, at York Factory, among packages 
of goods brought over from England, and states that the 
house mouse was introduced at Engineer Cantonment, on 
the Missouri River, near Council Bluffs, Iowa, by Long's 
expedition in 1819-20. By 1855 it was found at many 
points in the interior, such as Prairie Mer Rouge, La. ; 
Fort Riley, Kan.; Fort Pierre, S. Dak.; Fort Redding, 
Cal., and Parras, Coahuila, Mexico. It has even pene- 
trated to such points as the Huachuca Mountains in 
Arizona, where it was introduced about 1891 in a wagon- 
load of seed grain. It reached Bering Island, one of the 
Commander group off Kamchatka, in 1870, in a cargo of 
flour shipped from San Francisco in the schooner Justus. 
In the southern hemisphere it occurs at Punta Arenas, 
Patagonia, and is common in such out-of-the-way places 
as Gough Island, in the middle of the South Atlantic and 
Kerguelen Island, southeast of the Cape of Good Hope. 
In short, its distribution is apparently limited only by 
the arctic and antarctic circles. 
Rabbits. 
The common rabbit of Europe (Lepus cuniculus) was 
~MB!andford (Mammals of India 1888-1891, p. 409), who gives 
Mongolia as its probable original habitat, states that it is not 
indigenous to India, and is unknown in Per.sia and Afghanistan, 
but suggests that it will probably be introduced into the two latter 
countries as soon as wheeled vehicles talce the place of pack 
animals. 
originally introduced into Australia for purposes 
of sport, and the results of the experiment are so well 
known that anything more than a brief reference to them 
is unnecessary. Suffice it to say that the rabbits were lib- 
erated near Melbourne about 1864, and by 1878 had ex- 
tended westward over Victoria and beyond the Murray 
River. They were also introduced into Tasmania and 
New Zealand and spread over the country like a scourge. 
So rapidly did they multiply that in 1879 legislative action 
for their destruction was begun in South Australia, and 
the example was soon followed by New South Wales, 
New Zealand, Queensland and Tasmania. At the pres- 
ent time their range in Australia is equal in area to that 
of our three largest States — Texas, California and Mon- 
tatia. Millions of dollars have been spent for bounties, 
poisons and various other methods of destruction; thou- 
sands of miles of rabbit-proof fences have been built, and 
hundreds of schemes for destroying the animals have 
been suggested, but nothing has yet been found that will 
effectually exterminate the pest. Natural enemies, such 
as cats and other carnivorous animals, have been intro- 
duced, and in certain parts of New Zealand, at least, 
have become almost as much a pest as the rabbits they 
were intended to. kill. In 1887 no less than 19,182,539 
rabbits were destroyed in New South Wales alone, but 
despite the efforts of the Government and private land 
owners the rabbits seem to be still increasing. In the 
meantime, a great industry has grown up in the export 
of rabbit skins. For the last five years New Zealand has 
been shipping an average of about 15,000,000 per an- 
num, and since 1873 has exported more than 200,000,000. 
Recently, canning rabbit meat for export to European 
markets is assuming larger proportions and gives prom- 
ise of developing into an important industry. 
Tlie Mongoose. 
The common mongoose of India {Herpestes mungo or 
H. griseus, PI. VIII.) is a well-known destroyer of rats, 
lizards and snakes, and has been introduced into Ja- 
maica and other tropical islands for the purpose of ridding 
cane fields of rats. The annual loss which the island of 
Jamaica formerly suffered on account of the ravages of 
the introduced black rats {^Mus rattus) and brown rats 
{M. decumanus) , and the so-called "cane-piece rat," in- 
cluding the expense of destroying these pests, was es- 
timated at £ 100,000, or $500,000. Various remedies were 
tried, but apparently witli little success, until in Febru- 
ary, 1872, Mr. W. Brancroft Espeut introduced nine in- 
dividuals of the mongoose, four males and five females, 
from India. These animals increased with remarkable 
rapidity, and soon spread to ■all parts of the island, even 
to the tops of the highest mountains. A decrease in the 
number of rats was soon noticeable, and in 1882, ten 
years after the first introduction, the saving to the sugar 
planters was said to be £.45,000, or $225,000 per annum. 
Still the mongoose increased, and its omnivorous hab- 
its became more and more apparent as the rats dimin- 
ished. It destroyed young pigs, kids, lambs, kittens, 
puppies, the native "coney," or capromys, poultry, game, 
birds wMch nested on or near the ground, eggs, snakes, 
ground lizards, frogs, turtles' eggs and land crabs. It 
was also known to eat ripe bananas, pineapples, young 
corn, avocado pears, sweet potatoes, cocoanuts and 
other fruits. Toward the close of the second dec- 
ade, the mongoose, originally considered very bene- 
ficial, came to be regarded as the greatest pest 
ever introduced into the island. Poultry and do- 
mesticated fowls suffered from its depredations, 
and the short-tailed capromys {Capromys brachy- 
urus), which was formerly numerous, becatrie almost ex- 
tinct, except in some of the mountainous districts. The 
ground dove \C olmnbigalUna passerina) and the quail 
dove (Geotrygon montana) became rare, and the intro- 
duced bobwhite, or quail, was almost exterminated. The 
peculiar Jamaica petrel {Aestrelata caribboea), whicn 
nested in the mountains of the island, likewise became 
almost exterminated. Snakes, represented by at least 
five species, all harmless, and lizards, includmg about 
twenty species, were greatly diminished in numbers. 
The same thing was true of the land and fresh-water tor- 
toises and the marine turtle (Chelone vtridis), which 
formerly laid its eggs in abundance in the loose sand on 
the north coast. The destruction of insectivorous birds, 
snakes and lizards was followed by an increase m several 
injurious insects, particularly ticks, which became a seri- 
ous pest, and a Coccid moth, the larvje of which bore 
into the pimento trees. In 1890 a commission was ap- 
pointed by the Government to consider whether meas- 
ures should be taken to reduce' the number of the ani- 
mals, and the evidence collected showed conclusively that 
the evil results of the introduction of the mongoose far 
outweighed the benefits rendered to the sugar and coffee 
plantations. ... , 
Recently there has been a change m the situation, and 
the mongoose is now reported as decreasing, while cer- 
tain birds and reptiles, particularly the ground lizard, are 
increasing. Quail and pigeons are reported as more 
numerous, and there is less complaint concernmg the de- 
struction of poultry. Thus, Jamaica seems to have passed 
the high-water mark of loss occasioned by rats and by 
the mongoose, and while its fauna has been niodified by 
the presence of the intruders, both native and introduced 
species are gradually accommodating themselves to the 
changed conditions, and a new balance of nature is being 
established.'' , ^ . . „ • , 1 j 
According to Mr. Espeut,^ who originally" introduced 
the mongoose into Jamaica, large numbers of the ani- 
mals have been sent to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Grenada, Bar- 
bados, Santa Cruz and elsewhere, but the fate of these 
shipments, made at least sixteen years ago, is now un- 
known. It is now established on Haiti, as shown by the 
capture of a specimen at Santo Domingo City in the win- 
ter of 1895,' and is generally distributed over the island of 
Puerto Rico. It is also present on the island of Vieques, 
'"ast of Puerto Rico, and is abundant on St. Thomas. 
During a recent visit Mr. A. B. Baker found it along the 
coast of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, San Juan, Fajardo, Ar- 
royo Ponce and Mayaguez, and in the interior at Utuado 
and 'Adjuntas.- It was introduced at San Juan about 
1877-79, and although now becoming a nuisance, is Con- 
sidered' beneficial by the sugar planters, who claim that 
the rats, which were formerly very destructive to cane, 
See Duerjden, Jom. Inst: Jamaica, II-. 1896. pp. 273-275. 
'Proc. Zool. See, I^ondon, 1882, p, 714. 
8 Elliott, Field Columbian Mus.. Zool, Ser., 1., 189b, p. si. 
now do little damage. These rats often live in the tops 
of the royal and 'cocoa palms and destroy cocoanuts as 
well as sugar cane. 
The first efforts to introduce the mongoose into the 
Hawaiian Islands were made about 1881, when a few in- 
dividuals of a large species were brought from the East 
Indies and liberated on a sugar plantation in the district 
of Hamakue, on Hawaii. These animals did not breed 
and soon disappeared. A few months later a few pairs 
of a smaller species were imported from Calcutta, but 
nearly all Avere accidentally drowned while being landed 
near Hilo. Soon afterwards seventy-five individuals 
were imported from Jamaica by the planters of Hilo, and 
later 215 more were imported for Hamakua. Here the 
mongoose is aiding in the rapid extermination of some 
of the native birds, particularly the Hawaiian goose 
{Nesochen sandvicensis) , which is found only on those 
islands above an altitude of 4,000ft., and the Hawaiian 
duck {Anas ivyvUliana) , also a peculiar species. Accord- 
ing to Mr. H. W. Henshaw this duck was common about 
Hilo four years ago, but in 1898 none were left anywhere 
in this region. As in Jamaica, the depredations of rats 
in the cane fields diminished with the increase of the 
mongoose, but the latter soon became so abundant that 
measures became necessary to keep it under control. In 
T892 a law was passed forbidding the introduction, 
breeding, or keeping of the mongoose in the islands, and 
the sum of $1,000 was appropriated for the payment of 
bounties on animals killed on the island of Oahu. These 
rewards, not to exceed 25 cents per head, were to be paid 
by the Minister of the Interior, but apparently no appli- 
cations were made for them, the animals being regarded 
as a necessary evil in the sugar-cane districts. 
Attempts at introduction in other countries have not 
succeeded so well. The mongoose was introduced into 
the Fiji Islands, probably about 1870, but apparently has 
not increased to the extent to which it has in Hawaii. 
Early in the eighties several experiments were made in 
Australia, which resulted in failure. More than a hun- 
dred individuals were liberated near the Murray River 
and others in New South Wales. An experiment was 
also made in New Zealand, but apparently withopt much 
success.^ In February, 1892, it was erroneously reported 
that the Department of Agriculture was about to intro- 
duce the mongoose into the United States for the pur- 
■ pose of destroying gophers in the West. Although 
founded on a mistake, and speedily corrected, the rumor 
was so well heralded by the press that it attracted wide- 
spread attention. Persons who were familiar with the 
situation in Jamaica and Hawaii protested vigorously 
against the supposed experiment. Others, ignorant of 
the animal's past record and anxious to try some new 
method of exterminating gophers, prepared to obtain 
specimens from Honolulu. By the most strenuous ef- 
forts these importations were prevented, and as yet the 
mongoose is not known to have gained a foothold on 
this continent. 
Ferrets, Stoats and 'Weasels. 
In the attempt to check the rabbit pest in New Zealand 
recourse has been had to the importation of natural en- 
emies, such as ferrets, stoats {Putorius ermineus), and 
weasels {P. nivalis). In the Wairarapa district some 600 
ferrets, 300 stoats and weasels, and 300 cats had been 
turned out previous to 1887. Between January, 1887, and 
June, 1888, contracts were made by the Government for 
nearly 22,000 ferrets, and several thousand had previously 
been liberated on Crown and private lands. Large num- . 
bers ot stoats and weasels have also been liberated during 
the last fifteen years. This host of predatory animals 
speedily brought about a decrease in the number of rab- 
bits, but its work was not confined to rabbits, and soon 
game birds and other species were found to be diminish- 
ing. The stoat and the weasel are much more blood- 
thirsty than the ferret, and the widespread destruction is 
attributed to them rather than to the latter animal. Now 
that some of the native birds are threatened with exter- 
mination, it has been suggested to set aside an island 
along the New Zealand coast where the more interesting 
indigenous species can be kept safe from their enemies 
and saved from complete extinction. 
Flying Foxes or Froit Rats. 
On Aug. 4, 1893, the steamer Monowai, from Aus- 
tralia, arrived at San Francisco, having on board a fruit- 
eating bat, or flying fox. The animal had taken refuge 
on the steamer off the coast of Australia, and was cap- 
tured and kept as a pet by one of the passengers. It 
was promptly killed by the quarantine officer at San 
Francisco, and four more, which arrived in captivity two 
months later from China, on the steamer Rio de Janeiro, 
met the same fate. Attention was called to the danger of 
the new pest, and one of the regulations adopted by the 
State Board of Horticulture in the following year pro- 
hibited the importation of these animals into California. 
Flying foxes belong to the genus Pteropus, one of the 
best-known groups of fruit-eating bats. The genus in- 
cludes some fifty species, which are found in the tropics 
of the Old World, from Madagascar and the Comoro 
Islands east to Australia, and the Samoan Islands, and 
north to India, Malay Archipelago, and southern Japan. 
Five species occur in Australia, two of them as far south 
as New South Wales (lat. 35 deg. S.), but none are 
found in New Zealand or in the Hawaiian Lslands. The 
largest species is the Kalong or Malay fruit bat {Pteropus 
edulis), which measures more than 5ft. across the tips of 
the wings. 
In Australia these bats are described as living in im- 
mense communities or "camps" in the most inaccessible 
parts of the dense scrub of gullies and swamps. Here 
they may be seen by thousands, frequently crowded so 
thickly on the trees that large branches are broken by 
their weight. They fl}^ considerable distances in search 
of food, sallying forth in flocks about sunset and return- 
ing to their camps before dawn. In New South Wales, 
and more especially in Queensland, flying foxes are one 
of the worst pests of the fruit grower, and are described 
as a plague which threatens the fruit-growing industry in 
a large part of Australia. They are particularly injurious 
to figs, bananas, peaches and other soft fruit, and it is 
estimated that the damage done to orchards in the coast 
district of New South Wales amounts to many thou- 
sands of pounds annually. Various expedients have been 
^ Final Rept Royal Comm. Inquiry Exterm. Rabbits Australasia, 
1890, p. 9. - „ 
