FOSSIL VERTEBRATES IN THE WEST INDIES. 167 



pologists, and incidental to this work a few remains of extinct ani- 

 mals have been secured and described by Dr. Gerrit S. Miller, of 

 Washington. Dr. Glover M. Allen has also published a note on 

 some interesting cave fossils secured by Dr. Thomas Barbour. The 

 largest cave collection yet secured was made by Mr. Barnum Brown 

 last winter in a deposit discovered by Dr. Barbour and explored by 

 us on his invitation. 



These cave faunas consist chiefly of the remains of the small 

 animals, rodents, insectivores, bats, etc., which are rare in the spring 

 faunas. Remains of the ground sloths are rare, but they do occur. 

 Quite recently Mr. Harrington, in exploring certain caves at the 

 far eastern end of the island for the Museum of the American In- 

 dian, secured some remains of extinct animals that warrant further 

 search. They were chiefly Mcgalocmis, showing that this animal 

 ranged through the whole of Cuba in the Pleistocene. 



The fauna of these cave and spring deposits is a very interesting 

 one. Fortunately the two supplement each other, so as to give a 

 pretty full representation both of the large and of the small animals. 

 Each consists of many hundreds of jaws, with a proportionate num- 

 ber of other bones. It is fair to conclude that it gives us a pretty 

 good line on the characteristic mammals of the Cuban Pleistocene. 

 Further discoveries may bring other animals to light, but as the 

 same types recur in each deposit, common in one, rare in another, 

 it does not seem likely that they will make any great additions to 

 the fauna save through genus — and species — splitting, analogous to 

 what has been going on among modern mammals for the last few 

 decades. For obvious reasons it is better for palaeontologists to be 

 conservative in this respect — even at the risk of being stigmatized 

 as " lumpers." 



Insectivora. — The existing Solenodon has not been found fossil. 

 This is not surprising, as it is very rare now, and may have been 

 rare during the Pleistocene. The extinct Nesophontes of Porto 

 Rico is represented in Cuba by a much smaller species distinct in 

 various particulars. It has been described by Dr. G. M. Allen as 

 Nesophontes micrits. Mr. Brown secured a great series of jaws, 

 etc., of this species in his cave collection, but only a single jaw and 

 a tooth at Ciego Montero. 



