238 BULLETIN 15 5, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



mingled with an occasional fragment of the owl through whose 

 agency the other remains have been preserved for us. Occasional 

 lumps of bones found in the deposit are still cemented together in 

 the form of pellets. 



In a visit to St. Michel on April 21, 1927, Wetmore examined in 

 person the Grotte San Francisco from which had come the type 

 bones of Tyto ostologa. After walking up a limestone slope through 

 dry scrub in the blazing heat of an afternoon sun the air within the 

 cavern was cool and refreshing. Stalagmitic columns divided the 

 cave in two sections, with a large opening or chimney admitting 

 light from above into a chamber at the farther end. The loose soil 

 was reddish in color and rose in a powder of dust during some casual 

 digging that disclosed a few bones. At one side was a projecting 

 ledge which apparently had served the great owl as a roost as it 

 does the modern barn owl today as below mammalian remains were 

 in abundance. As the site was examined one could imagine great 

 owls peering down with drowsy eyes from the cavern ledges or flying 

 out on soft, noiseless wings through the opening above to range the 

 nearby hillsides and savannas in search of prey. 



There is no definite criterion from which the age of these cave 

 deposits may be estimated, except that the animal tissues have en- 

 tirely disappeared from the bones found in them. Some of the more 

 perfect bones are white and appear startlingly recent. It seems 

 probable that the deposits were accumulated over a long period of 

 years extending perhaps • from four hundred to two thousand or 

 more years ago. 



On April 15, 1927, in the Trujin on La Selle described in connec- 

 tion with Tyto glaucops, beneath the span of rock forming a bridge 

 across the sink, Wetmore chanced to observe a hollow thirty inches 

 long by a foot wide behind some hanging stalactites at an elevation 

 of six feet from the floor where the depression was completely 

 sheltered from the elements. On climbing up to look into this an 

 old skull lying on a little earth caught the eye and proved on ex- 

 amination to represent one of the extinct species of rodents of the 

 island. Careful digging revealed many other bones among them 

 skulls of Nesophontes. Practically all of the earth was removed and 

 brought to Washington where it has been carefully examined. 

 Though no remains of Tyto ostologa were identified the other ma- 

 terial is so similar to that from La Selle as to lead to the supposition 

 that the depression was formerly the nesting place of the giant owl. 



In this connection it is of interest to detail an account of a visit 

 to La Selle given by Moreau de Saint-Mery 86 whose account he says 

 was taken from the journal Affiches Americaines for April 28, 1788. 



88 Deecrlp. Part. Franc lie Salnt-Domingue, vol. 2, 1798, p. 298. 



