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Show 712 MR. W. B. ESPEUT ON THE ACCLIMATIZATION [Nov. 28, 4. On the Acclimatization of the Indian Mungoos in Jamaica. By W . BANCROFT ESPEUT, F.L.S. [Received November 13, 1882.] In 1871 the loss in sugar-cultivation in Jamaica from the ravages of rats was so great that 1 was convinced that something more than poison, traps, &c. was required to reduce it, if sugar-culture was to continue. For nearly 200 years the sugar-planters have had to contend with this serious difficulty ; and on most estates from ,£200 to .=£300 a year have been expended in destroying the rats by poison, traps, and baits, and in ratcatchers and dogs. This expenditure, however, only represented a fraction of the loss resulting from the injury and destruction of the canes, and of the sugar they contained. Besides the ordinary Black and Brown Rats of Europe, the Island was infested with the Grey Rat, or, as it is locally called, " Cane-piece Rat" (Mus saccharivorus). Whence the species came is known to no one ; probably it is indigenous, as it is found in Cuba, Porto Rico, and other islands. The Brown and Black Rats cause comparatively small loss ; but the Grey Rat is most destructive. Nesting in old stone walls, in holes in wet banks and tree-roots (but not on trees like the Black Rat), it falls an easy prey to terriers; but as dogs suffer much from injuries to their eyes in traversing cane-fields, owing to the serrated edges of the leaves and the spines on the young plants, it was futile to expect much relief from them. More than 100 years ago Sir Charles Price, then a large sugar-planter, introduced ferrets and English rat-catchers ; but the ferrets were destroyed by chigoes, and were of little use. Tradition says Sir Charles Price then obtained from Central America some other animal; but nothing is certainly known about this ; certainly no animal belonging to the Musteline group exists in the island. Confounding the ferrets with the Grey Rat, the negroes appear to think Sir Charles Price introduced the latter ; and, in consequence of this strange error, they even now call the Grey or Cane-piece Rat " Massa Price's Ratta." In 1844 Mr. Anthony Davis imported from Barbadoes some two dozen Agua Toads (Bufo agua), in the hope that they would mitigate the rat plague. These toads were introduced from Cayenne into Martinique, and thence to Barbadoes, and were regarded as useful in destroying the young rats. But in Jamaica they certainly proved not only valueless, but a nuisance : the noise they make is most disagreeable; and they are very destructive to poultry, chickens, and eggs. Sir Stamford Raffles, the first President of this Society, introduced into Jamaica from Cuba the Formica omnivora, now known locally as the " Raffle ant." This formidable insect certainly keeps |