NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 117 



Described and figured by Cuvier over a century ago, from a 

 specimen brought by Alexander Ricord from Hispaniola in 

 about 1826, no additional specimens of the genus had since 

 been found living until Dr. W. L. Abbott secured a series of 

 ten adults and three young at Guarabo, Dominican Republic, 

 about 10 miles east of Jovero, Samana Bay. These he sent to 

 the IT. S. National Museum, where Miller (1927), on subse- 

 quent study, decided that they represented a species distinct 

 from aedium and proposed to call it P. hylaeum. 



Both these species were of similar appearance in life. Cuvier 

 describes P. aedium as of rather stout build, the head and body 

 about a foot in length, the tail 5 inches and naked. In a general 

 way these animals resemble a medium-sized Capromys pilorides, 

 but the teeth in both species are very different, with the enamel 

 folds extending diagonally instead of transversely across each 

 molar. In this respect also they recall the teeth of Isolobodon, 

 the Puerto Rican hutia, but the enamel reentrants are much 

 more nearly longitudinal in direction, and the upper tooth rows 

 are more nearly parallel instead of converging strongly in 

 front. There were five claws qn all four feet, although that of 

 the thumb was a short, blunt nail. The pelage in P. aedium 

 is described as thick, of fine silky hairs above, which were gray 

 in the basal three-quarters, tipped with tawny and intermixed 

 with longer all-black hairs. The under surfaces were paler 

 and clearer, probably nearly buff. The mustachial hairs, as 

 usual in this group, were long and abundant. Miller, who ex- 

 amined the type in Paris, adds that the tail was naked and 

 smooth, its small scales not overlapping but tending to be 

 rounded-pentagonal and scarcely a millimeter in diameter at 

 30 mm. from the base of the tail. "Ears naked internally, 

 thickly furred along edge and apparently on outer side also 

 . . . hind foot with claws, 74 mm." 



The distinguishing features of P. hylaeum are given by 

 Miller (1927, p. 4) as follows: Anteroposterior diameter of the 

 first and second true molars in the lower jaw, each less than the 

 transverse diameter instead of equaling or exceeding it, as in 

 P. aedium; reentrant enamel folds relatively narrower and 

 longer; and the size smaller with the length of the mandibular 

 tooth row (alveoli) in adults less than 21 mm., instead of about 

 24 mm. as in P. aedium. The color throughout is "nearly 

 wood-brown" darkening to buffy brown on chest and belly. 



