NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 99 



Penobscot Bay, Maine, it has been shown by Wyman (1922, p. 

 163) that it is identical with the mainland species. Meadow 

 mice are excellent swimmers and may be expected to occur on 

 most of the small coastwise islands where conditions are 

 suitable and where the distances between such islands and the 

 nearest land are not too great to be crossed at intervals by them. 



Family ECHIMYIDAE: Spiny Rats and Their Relatives 



HISPANIOLAN SPINY RAT; "MOHUY" 



BROTOMYS VORATUS Miller 



Brotomys voratus Miller, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 66, no. 12, p. 7, 1916 ("Kitchen 



midden at San Pedro de Macoris, Santo Domingo"). 

 FIGS. : Miller, 1916b, pi., fig. 1 (four views of type rostrum) ; 1929c, pi. 2, fig. 1 (rostrum) ; 



1930, pi. 1, figs. 2, 2a, 2b; pi. 2, fig. 5 (femur). 



BROTOMYS CONTRACTUS Miller 



Brotomys (?) contractus Miller, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 81, no. 9, p. 13, Mar. 



30, 1929 ("Small cave near St. Michel, Haiti"). 

 FIG.: Miller, 1929a, pi. 2, fig. 2 (palate). 



These two species of Hispaniola, the second with peculiarly 

 narrowed palate, may, as Miller remarks, represent even dis- 

 tinct genera, but with the fragmentary material at present 

 known, this is still uncertain, though they evidently are related 

 rather closely. 



Brotomys represents a spiny rat, about the size of the South 

 American Proechimys canicollis, remarkable for its "robust 

 skull with weak teeth." The antorbital opening is very large 

 and lacks a secondary canal at the lower corner for the passage 

 of the facial branch of the fifth nerve, a character readily dis- 

 tinguishing it from Boromys. The upper cheek teeth are four 

 on each side, with three short roots each. There is a deep 

 enamel infolding from about the middle of each side of each 

 cheek tooth, meeting or slightly overlapping at the center. 

 Probably a shallower infold is present in the crown of a fresh 

 tooth, which soon wears down to leave a small island of enamel 

 in at least the posterior half of each upper molar. Length of 

 four upper alveoli, 10.8 mm. The palate is slightly emarginate. 

 In the toothless palate representing B. contractus the very 

 narrow space between the molar rows is a most striking 

 character. 



