SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNT OF THE SPECIES. 209 



this crocodile as a small species. It will be observed from what Gundlach 

 records that this is far from being the case. We have not been able to hear of the 

 occurrence of such large individuals in the Cienaga of the Island of Pines. Here 

 the species is said still to occur quite abundantly, although perforce it is restricted 

 to a smaller area than that occupied by the colony of Cuban individuals. The 

 skull ot Gundlach's great example which he mentions is now in the Museo 

 Gundlach of the Havana Instituto de Segunda Ensenanza. It is in a tight 

 case and can not be measured but appears fully two feet long. 



We beUeve that Crocodilus moreleti A. Dumeril from "Lac Flores, Yucatan" 

 was really based upon a Cuban specimen of rhombifer carried to Central America 

 and sent from there to Europe by Morelet who collected it during a visit to Cuba 

 en route. Prof, de la Torre tells us that various molluscs were named which 

 had this same history. The Alligator lacordairei of P. de Borre (Bull. Acad, 

 roy. Belg. 1869, ser. 2, 28, p. 110, plate — ) is we believe based upon a young 

 Crocodilus acutus from BeUze, although Boulenger places the name in the 

 synonymy of C. moreleti, a species which he recognizes as valid. Dr. Boulenger, 

 of course, did not know of the status of other species collected by Morelet. 



Since the preceding account was completed several observations of inter- 

 est have been made. 



During the winter or rather Cuban early spring (February and March) 

 of 1917 the senior author stayed, together with Messrs. John B. Henderson, 

 W. S. Brooks, and the late Goodwin Warner, with Mr. Walter Wilcox at his large 

 mahogany cutting on the eastern shore of the Ensenada de Cochinos, one of 

 the most inaccessible regions in the Island. Here we found pecuUar conditions. 

 On the east side of the Bay the "seborucal" formation comes to the coast, 

 heavily forested. It is a hard tiresome journey over the "diente perro," the 

 curiously eroded limestone, back from the salt water to the great reed-beds and 

 fresh-water pond of the true Cienaga de Zapata system. There are a few 

 bridle paths but moving about is painfully difficult. Numerous fresh streams 

 flow from the Cienaga to the Ensenada, partly under the Umestone which often 

 sounds hollow under one's horse's feet, and partially open to the air where the 

 tunnel roof has been dissolved away or has fallen in. Here as in the reed-bed 

 ponds rhombifer abounds. Crocodiles are abundant, and we often saw rather 

 large individuals; one seen on several occasions was probably over eleven feet 

 long. On the opposite shore, the western, the conditions were very different. 

 We frequently hunted along this coast and tramped far inland with Wilcox 

 as guide; he had previously prepared the chart of the Bay since pubUshed by 



