14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8l 



missing on one side and is incomplete on the other) but it must have 

 been essentially equal to the diastema ( 10.8 mm.). In the three skulls 

 of B. voratus it is 9.8, lo.o and 9.6, while the diastema in the same 

 specimens is 13.6, 12.6 and 12.8, respectively. 



Sf^ccimciis cxauiiiicd. — One. the type. 



Remarks. — The disproportion 1)etwcen the alveoli and palate in 

 this species as compared with Brotouiys voratus is so great as to 

 suggest that, when more comjjletelv known, the animal will prove 

 to represent a distinct genus. In all of the other related members 

 of the group from the large Hctcropsouiys (and Hotiiof^soiiiys if 

 distinct) of Porto Rico to the small Boroinys torrei of Cuba the 

 proportionate width of palate and alveoli does not greatly vary ; 

 the palate, at the iw^ level is always at least equal to the width 

 of the largest alveolus. The narrowing of the palate to less than 

 half the width of this alveolus in B. ( ?) contractus may therefore 

 easily be a character of more than s]>ecific weight. 



ISOLOBODON LEVIR (Miller) 



Plate _'. Figs. 3, 3a 



1922 Isolobodon portoricensls Miller, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., Vol. 74. No. 3. 



p. 3. October 16, 1922. 

 1922 Ithydontia levir Miller, Smithsonian Alisc. Coll., Vol. 74, No. 3, p. 5. 



October 16, 1922. 



Thirty palates and fragmentary skidls, more than 600 mandibles. 



This is the most abundantly represented of the vertebrates found 

 in the bone bearing deposits. Its flesh seems to have been the chief 

 article of food of the giant barn owl, Tyto ostolaga: many of the 

 skulls and jaws were found in masses of bones which had the 

 structure characteristic of owl pellets. 



The original collection from the large cave near St. Michel included 

 two isolated upper premolars of Isolobodon. Wrongly determining 

 them as lower teeth I made these specimens the basis of a new genus 

 and species, Ithydontia levir, selecting as type what I supposed to be 

 " a right mandibular tooth, probably pnu or n^." but actually, as the 

 rich material now at hand clearly shows, pni* left. So far as the 

 generic name Ithydontia is concerned there can be no doubt — it is a 

 synonym of Isolobodon. But the proper disposition of the specific 

 name is less easily determined. For the present it seems necessary 

 to retain Isolobodon levir as the designation of the Haitian member 

 of the genus. Although the absence of good skulls from the St. Michel 

 series makes a satisfactory comparison with Isolobodon portoriccnsis 



