CHAELES PEICE EAT. 
447 
Luidas Vale, in St. John’s, and he informed me 
that, according to the family tradition, the animal 
introduced by his ancestor was a substitute for the 
Ferret. It had been found that the European Fer- 
rets were rendered useless by their inability to over- 
come the Chigoe infestment of the colony. Sir 
Charles Price bethought him that if he could find an 
animal in the country of the Chigoe, corresponding 
to the Weasel of Europe, he would accomplish the 
naturalisation of a Rat-destroyer with instincts ca- 
pable of counteracting the plague of the parasitical 
insect. He accordingly procured something from 
South America, that in the eyes of the negroes had 
strong rat characteristics, but which was no Rat. It 
w’as of large size. Several were set at large about 
the house at the Decoy, in St. Mary’s, and at Wor- 
thy Park, to establish themselves how they might. 
It would seem that nothing came of the scheme, for 
no animal allied to the Musteline group of quadru- 
peds has been found naturalised in the colony. The 
Poto, or Kinkajou, which Mr. Colinson communi- 
cated to the Count de Buffon in a letter of the 12th 
December, 1766, and described as having been taken 
in the mountains of Jamaica, and of which he gave 
Buffon a drawing, engraved in the 1st Edition of his 
Natural History (the 3rd vol. of his Supplement), 
is the nearest approach to an animal of this character 
found here in a state of nature. 
“ There are some three or four Viverrine animals of 
South America, which Sir Charles Price might have 
made experiments upon as substitutes for Ferrets, 
and which the negroes might have considered gigan- 
