104 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Although somewhat resembling Capromys prehensilis, the 

 longer-tailed and prehensile-tailed species of western Cuba, 

 this seems to be a quite distinct species. Although its tail is 

 prehensile, the hair is not worn away through use of the tail in 

 holding as it is in the former. Moreover, as is well known to 

 those accustomed to hunt it, the tail readily breaks away near 

 the base if strain is placed upon it. For this reason the hunter 

 does not attempt to drag the animal out from a hole by the 

 tail. As with spiny rats, the point of weakness is close to the 

 base of the tail and is marked externally by a sudden change in 

 the character of the hair from that of the body to the more 

 shaggy type of the rest of that member. It comes away easily 

 without bleeding, leaving a rosette of muscle fibers. The de- 

 tails of the anatomy and external appearance are illustrated in 

 the paper by Dobson (1884). 



First clearly described by Poey in 1864, the species continues 

 to be little known and rare in collections. Those in the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology were secured in the foothills of the 

 Sierra Maestra of extreme southeastern Cuba in 1913, and again 

 others were obtained in the mountains north of Imias in 1936. 

 This species replaces C. prehensilis in the eastern tip of Cuba 

 and is closely related to it. The only good account of its habits 

 is the recent one of Bucher (1937), who kept several of this and 

 the other larger Cuban species in captivity and found them 

 interesting pets. Of C. melanurus he writes that they are 

 active and feed late in the evening and at night. In a wild 

 state they apparently live in pairs together, and the females 

 produce one or two young at a birth. The males fight one 

 another for possession of a female but otherwise seem good- 

 natured. Unlike C. pilorides, they do not enjoy being petted 

 and can not be trusted not to snap at one's finger at times. 

 They chatter their teeth when approached and at mating time 

 use a short, low birdlike whistle. In captivity the gestation 

 period seems to be about 17 or 18 weeks. In actions they are 

 said by Bucher to be very squirrellike, running along branches 

 or leaping from tree to tree, using the tail as a balance or in a 

 prehensile manner. Bucher fed his C. melanurus at first on 

 fruit of "yagruma" (Cecropia), and later they became adapted 

 to a diet of sweetpotato vine, prunings of guava, any citrus 

 fruit and grapevine leaves, buds, and bark. Unlike C. pilorides, 

 they will not eat bread or cracker. Probably their arboreal 



