NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 1) 



appearance than some of the jaws of Epimys near which they 

 were found. Whether or not Nesophontes now exists alive is 

 a question which for the present cannot be answered. No bones 

 of insectivores have been found in any of the numerous fresh 

 owl pellets which I have examined. It seems not improbable, 

 however, that if any part of the island remains uninvaded by 

 the roof rat, the native animal might now be found to exist 

 there" (Miller, 1929a, p. 3). 



Wetmore and Swales write (1931, p. 238) : "It seems probable 

 that the deposits [made by the extinct owl in the Haitian Caves] 

 were accumulated over a long period of years extending perhaps 

 from four hundred to two thousand or more years ago." 

 They record the finding of skulls of Nesophontes in a supposed 

 nesting site of this owl in a sink-hole on La Selle, Haiti. 



Miller also records (1929c, p. 4) remains of N. paramicrus 

 and N. hypomicrus from a deposit made by the extinct owl, 

 Tyto ostologa, in a cave on the islet San Gabriel in the Samana 

 Bay region of the Dominican Republic. 



The occurrence of remains of these insectivores with those 

 of the introduced roof rat and house mouse indicates their 

 survival to post-Columbian times, while their usual absence 

 from fresh owl pellets suggests their extinction. 



In the following year, Miller (1930) found bones of both 

 these species in material collected earlier in 1930 about 10 

 kilometers southwest of Constanza, Dominican Republic. 

 This consisted of a mass of owl pellets, apparently those of the 

 small living barn owl, found "in a shelter under an overhanging 

 ledge about 100 feet up the northern flank of Monte Culo de 

 Maco" in the rain-forest region where disintegration may take 

 place much sooner than in the drier parts of the island. Some 

 of the bones were so fresh as to retain bits of dried tissue while 

 the brain case of one of the skulls was found to be "packed full 

 of hair by the action of the owl's stomach." From this evidence 

 Miller concludes that these insectivores as well as two associ- 

 ated genera of rodents may still exist in that region. It is 

 hoped that future exploration may confirm this suggestion. 



