BANGS: LAND MAMMALS OF FLORIDA AND GEORGIA. 167 
from a distance as if the ground were covered with snow. Such 
places are known as “black-jack ridges” and are, in my experience, 
the sole abode of one of the most remarkable mammals of Florida, 
the big-eared Florida deer mouse. 
The whole coast of Georgia and northeastern Florida south to 
the Matanzas River is one continuous stretch of salt-tide marsh 
interlaced by deep creeks, and now and then broken by a sandy 
beach where some higher point of land meets the deep water. In 
these vast salt marshes live marsh rabbits, cotton rats, rice-field mice, 
and the salt-marsh mink ; while enormous numbers of raccoon visit 
them nightly in search of crabs and fish, wearing beaten paths from 
the upland down over the marsh. 
Along the Georgia coast stretches the series of islands, many of 
them of considerable size, known as the Sea Islands. The Sea 
Islands are, according to geologists, of comparatively modern date, 
and are merely portions of the mainland separated by miles of 
salt marsh and creek; yet Cumberland Island has two mammals 
peculiar to it, a “ salamander ” and a white-footed mouse, and some 
of the other islands have forms which in the course of time will 
probably become differentiated into island species. The mole on 
Ossabaw Island is already slightly different from that of the main¬ 
land opposite, as is also the gray squirrel on Cumberland Island. 
The cotton rat upon Ossabaw Island is very pallid, and has a strong 
tendency to have pale cinnamon under parts. Were it not for the 
great local variation in color presented by this species, I should feel 
tempted to recognize this form by name. Anastasia Island lies 
directly opposite the City of St. Augustine, and is by far more 
interesting than any of the Sea Islands; it has three insular species, 
two mice (Peroynyscus anastasae and P. phasmci) and one mole 
(Scalops anastasae). It may be that Anastasia Island is older 
than the Sea Islands, and the forms insulated upon it have had 
more time to change; or, perhaps, its open sand hills with an abun¬ 
dance of food, but offering scanty protection to the mammals inhabit¬ 
ing them, have caused a rapid modification in the direction of 
protective coloration. This, while it is very probably the case with 
the mice, could, however, hardly apply to the mole. Anastasia 
Island is about fifteen miles long, and is separated from the main¬ 
land by the Matanzas River. At each end of the island a deep 
inlet, through which the tide runs like a mill race, connects the 
river with the ocean. The island is made up of a long series of 
