MAMMALIA. 
81 
tlements ; not half a dozen instances of intermarriage have occurred 
during thirty years, and the “natives” still consider themselves 
superior. ~ 
The European or White population is chiefly formed of govern- 
ment officials, a few clergymen, a small garrison of about 200 men, a 
certain number of mariners including shipwrecked seamen, and 
CU their descendants, who settled there during the East 
India Company’s government, either as merchants, shipping agents, 
or farmers of the land. 
The total number of the population is 0800, ol which 4844 ■ were 
horn on the Island, thus giving 152 persons to each square mile or, 
after deducting 20,000 acres of barren, almost useless land, a propor- 
tion of nearly one-and-a-half acres of arable and pasture to each person. 
Order Rodentia. 
Rabbits, rats, and mice alone represent this order at St. Helena ; 
the former, or common rabbit {Lepus cuniculus ) is plentiful. In 
colour it is grey or black, and inhabits chiefly the grassy commons 
round the 'central portion of the Island, where its warrens 
abound, but also steals into the gardens of the interior, where it is 
most destructive. It is considered as game, and pio ec e y 
law during six weeks in April and May of each year. The cost oi a 
licence to kill rabbits and partridges during that time is 40*. ; but 
rabbits may be destroyed on private land throughout t e re- 
mainder of the year without a licence. 
Mus, Linn. 
M. decumanus, Linn.-Bats abound everywhere from the 
water’s edge to the mountain-top, building their nests either m holes 
or in high trees, just as rooks and crows do in England, and are 
as cunning and destructive as rats in general They have, most 
probably, been introduced in ships, and have long been in posses- 
Sion. Tn 1604 they were recorded as plentiful, and ■ after destroy- 
ing everything else, fell to destroying each other. It might seem 
a pity that they relaxed in this occupation, were it not for the 
amusement which Mr. O’Meara says they afforded Napoleon. He 
• An Exposition .T .on* of th, 
Stafafofl^^Uf^Uon Bonaparte,” b, Barr, E. O’Moara, too .urgo.n 
to Napoleon, 1819. 
