NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 17 



their neighbors by minute characters, they have been given 

 distinctive names. Thus we have as the oldest named form, 

 M . redmani of Jamaica; others are M . cubanus of Cuba, M . 

 cubanus ferreus of Haiti, M. portoricensis of Puerto Rico, an 

 allied form on Antigua, M. luciae on Santa Lucia, M. plethodon 

 on Barbados, and M. clinedaphus from an unknown locality. 

 All are living, and no doubt vary in abundance on the several 

 islands. On Puerto Rico, however, in recent years, Dr. H. E. 

 Anthony has discovered a second and larger species, which he 

 has distinguished as M. f rater; on each of the other islands only 

 one form is known to occur. 



Members of this genus of the subfamily Glossophaginae are 

 likely to be confused with Glossophaga of the mainland (and 

 some of the Antillean islands). They are small species with 

 long snouts surmounted by a small lancet-shaped nose-leaf 

 and are provided with a long extensible tongue for feeding on 

 fruit juices and perhaps in part upon nectar or pollen of 

 flowers. The teeth are peculiar in that the lower incisors are 

 minute and the cheek teeth are slightly elongate and spaced. 

 The cusps of the latter are low and the outer ones are placed 

 close to the edge of the crown "-so that the usual W-shaped 

 pattern of the cusps is obscured. The dentition includes, on 

 each side, two incisors above and below, a canine, two upper 

 and three lower premolars, and three molars above and below. 

 Externally it is easily distinguished from Glossophaga by the 

 longer tail, which is about half as long as the femur and pro- 

 jects beyond the edge of the narrow interfemoral membrane, 

 whereas in the latter genus the tail extends barely to the middle 

 of the wide interfemoral membrane. 



The species M. f rater is known only from five fragmentary 

 skulls excavated in the large Cathedral Cave near Morovis, 

 Puerto Rico, by Dr. H. E. Anthony some years ago. With 

 these was associated a skull of the living species still found in 

 Puerto Rico, M. portoricensis, showing that the two were con- 

 temporaries and represented distinct species. M . f rater is 

 considerably larger than the latter, with a narrow elongate 

 rostrum. This larger size is obvious from the comparative 

 measurements: Length of the upper cheek teeth (alveoli), 

 6.8-7.1 mm. as against 5.3; in the smaller species, length of 

 palate 12.4-12.7 mm. as against 9.3. In spite of much collect- 

 ing done in Puerto Rico, no living examples of this larger 



