Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/371

Rh the open squealed like a rabbit sometimes does under similar circumstances. In the forest they make regular tracks or paths by constantly taking the same line of country. They are very smart and up to every wrinkle, often escaping from some bolthole which has been overlooked, whilst they are being dug out, after having been run to earth. The native hunters frequently remark that "an old Agouti always knows where he is going when he once starts to run"—and admit that he often fools them!

Cœlogenys paca. The Lapp.—This, the largest rodent of Trinidad, is such good eating that the Catholics have thought it worth while to obtain special permission from the Pope to sanction its flesh as a Lenten comestible! They say it is amphibious and ranks with fish. Certainly it dives and swims well when it is hunted, and it is perhaps convenient for them that the See has such a slender zoological knowledge. Its earth is always a hole in a bank, often amongst the tangled roots of some large tree, and is generally near water. It is rapidly becoming rare in the neighbourhood of the most elementary civilization. It is not found in Tobago.

Tatusia novemcincta. The Tattu.—Some of the commonest signs of wild life in the high woods are the scratchings which this Armadillo makes amongst the dead leaves, &c, in the damper spots. I have eaten this animal, and even prefer it to the "Lapp." One female which I examined had four fœtuses in utero in the middle of February. Its habits are nocturnal, and its home is invariably some hole in a bank.

Sciurus æstuans. Squirrel.—In both Tobago and Trinidad the cocoa-planters employ a man to shoot these little animals, as they raid the trees and destroy an immense amount of cocoapods. Though they may in some cases destroy only the outer covering of the pods, they do the Woodpeckers and other birds a service in many cases, by making their work of destruction the more easy. They are sometimes kept in the ordinary Squirrel's cage, and I have seen them thriving in captivity in more than one instance.

Rhipidomys couesii. Tree Cocoa Rat.—This species I found very rare and difficult to secure. Traps have to be set for them in the cocoa trees, and at a considerable height from the ground.