100 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



This spiny-rat genus is known only from Hispaniola, where 

 Miller (1916b, 1929a, 1929c, 1930) has recorded it as relatively 

 common not only in the cave deposits, doubtless made in large 

 part by owls, but also in kitchen-middens of the aborigines. 

 Thus he secured two imperfect skulls and more than 50 mandi- 

 bles from caves near St. Michel, in central Haiti, while in the 

 region about Samana Bay in northeastern Dominican Republic 

 it occurred in every one of the various Indian sites investigated. 

 He writes (1929c) : "The frequency with which the bones of this 

 animal occur in the Indian deposits indicates that Brotomys 

 must have been abundant and generally distributed in pre- 

 Columbian days. It was probably much like the living South 

 American spiny-rats in size and general form, but with heavier, 

 less elongated head. I have little doubt that this animal was 

 the Mohuy described by Oviedo as ... somewhat 

 smaller than the hutia [Plagiodontia], its color is paler and 

 likewise gray. This was the food most valued and esteemed 

 by the caciques and chief of this island; and the character of 

 the animal was much like the hutia except that the hair was 

 denser and coarser (or more stiff), and very pointed and 

 standing erect or straight above." 



Nothing is known of B. contractus except the type palate. 

 No doubt the two were contemporaneous and were early ex- 

 terminated after the discovery of the island. It seems unlikely, 

 however, that hunting for food was the main cause of extinc- 

 tion. Possibly the introduced rats became a menacing factor, 

 or the actual extinction may have been the result of several 

 causes. 



LARGER CUBAN SPINY RAT 



BOROMYS OFFELLA Miller 



Boromys o/ella Miller, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 66, no. 12, p. 8, 1916 ("Village 



site at Maisi, Baracoa, Cuba"). 

 FIG.: Allen, G. M., 1918, pi. 1, fig. 6 (mandible). 



LESSER CUBAN SPINY RAT 



BOROMYS TORREI G. M. Allen 



Boromys torrei G. M. Allen, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 61, no. 1, p. 6, Jan., 1917 



("Cavern in the Sierra of Hato-Nuevo, Province of Matanzas, Cuba"). 

 FIGS.: Allen, G. M., 1917, pi., figs. 10-13; 1918, pi. 1, figs. 11-13 (skull and teeth). 



