A SECOND COLLECTION OF MAMMALS FROM CA\^ES 

 NEAR ST. MICHEL, HAITI 



By GERRTT S. MILLER, JR. 



curator, division of mammals, u. s. national museum 

 (With io Plates) 



Six years ago I published a short account of some bones of mammals 

 from the floor material of two caves situated near St. Michel, north- 

 centrar Haiti (Smithsonian Misc. Coll.. Vol. 74, No. 3, pp. 1-8, 

 October 16, 1922). The small collection on which that paper was 

 based had been made in 192 1 by Mr. J. S. Brown and Mr. W. S. 

 Burbank with the object of determining whether the caves contained 

 deposits sufficiently rich in the remains of extinct vertebrates to justify 

 a special expedition for their careful study. The few specimens brought 

 home proved to be of so much interest that I visited Haiti in the 

 spring of 1925, spending about four weeks at the plantation of 

 I'Atalaye near St. Michel. A general account of this field-work ap- 

 peared in Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 78. No. i, pp. 

 36-40, April 8. 1926. The following pages contain descriptions of the 

 remains of mammals which I collected. 



Concerning the caves themselves there is nothing important to add 

 to the notes made by Mr. Brown and Mr. Burbank. Two smaller 

 caves were found close to the large cavern near the town of St. Michel. 

 One of these has the entire roof fallen in so that very little of the 

 original floor material could be investigated. The other was in good 

 condition for working, and the deposits which it contained proved 

 to be exceptionally rich. Locally the region in which this group of 

 caves is situated is known as St. Francisque. The cave in the dry 

 valley north of the Atalaye plantation had been completely worked 

 out for guano since it was examined by Mr. Brown and Mr. Burbank. 

 Thus the interesting bone deposit which it contained had been almost 

 totally destroyed. Nevertheless I succeeded in finding a few speci- 

 mens scattered among the sifted limestone fragments with which the 



* Not " at the northwest end " of the republic as I wrongly stated in my 

 general account of the region. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 81, No. 9 



I 



