FAUNA OF AMERICA — CLARK 295 



monkeys range north to Mexico, howlers to Guatemahi, and several 

 other types, including marmosets, to Costa Rica. Sloths range north 

 to Mexico. Other mammals now characteristic of South America are 

 the jaguar, ocelot and other cats, peccary, armadillo, coati, kinkajou, 

 prehensile-tailed porcupine, agouti and numerous other rodents, and 

 many bats, including the small blood-feeding vampires. Of very 

 wide distribution are the puma and otter. Mammals of northern af- 

 finities, chiefly in Mexico, are the wolf, coyote, deer, raccoon, badger, 

 hare, squirrel, cacomixl, pouched rat (gopher or quachil) and some 

 other rodents, and insectivores. 



Among the interesting fossil mammals of the West Indies are a 

 ground sloth {Megaloriyx) , as large as a small bear, from Cuba, and 

 a very large rodent of the same size {Atnblyrhiza) from the very small 

 islands of Anguilla and St. Martins. These indicate a connection at 

 some time with continental Central or South America. There are 

 no fossil mammals known from the West Indies of greater age than 

 the Pleistocene. Most interesting of the living mammals' of the West 

 Indies are the two species of Solenodon^ one on Cuba and one on 

 Haiti. These are large insectivores with the body about a foot long 

 with fossil relatives in the Oligocene of North America and living 

 relatives chiefly in Madagascar, with a few in west Africa. 



Confined to the Greater Antilles are the large ratlike mammals 

 called hutias. The genus Plagiodontia lives only on Haiti. Species 

 of Capromys with short tails are found in the Bahamas, on Jamaica, 

 and on Swan Island north of Honduras. Three species with long 

 tails live on Cuba. A related but distinct type {Procapro?7iys) is 

 said to occur in the mountains of northern Venezuela. Raccoons occur, 

 or did occur until recently, on New Providence, Bahamas, Guadeloupe, 

 and Barbados. The rice rat of Jamaica {Orizomys) is an island rep- 

 resentative of one on the Honduras Peninsula. Of the 31 genera of 

 bats living in the West Indies no less than 10 are peculiar to the islands, 

 7 confined to the Greater Antilles, including the Bahamas, and 3 of 

 general distribution. 



Very distinct from the fauna of the Greater Antilles with its Central 

 and North American affinities is that of the Lesser Antilles, related 

 most closely to that of South America. The fauna of Trinidad is that 

 of adjacent Venezuela. The fauna of Tobago resembles that of Trini- 

 dad and includes a peccary, opossum, mouse opossum {Mamiosa), 

 small armadillo, paca, agouti, squirrel, spiny rat, and muskrat {Mega- 

 lomys) . On Grenada, the southernmost of the Lesser Antilles prop- 

 erly speaking, there is only the opossum (extensively introduced into 

 the northern islands), mouse opossum (which ranges into the Grena- 

 dines), agouti, and the small armadillo. There is an introduced 

 African monkey on Grenada, and another African species on Barbados 



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