118 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



On the under parts the light brown is uniform, but, above, it 

 is "finely intermingled with dark brown." It is thus probably 

 a somewhat darker-colored animal than P. aedium, the original 

 specimen of which is, however, much faded at the present time. 

 The largest specimen of Dr. Abbott's series measured 405 mm. 

 in length of head and body; the tail 130; foot, 74. 



It seems likely that at the present time P. aedium, the older- 

 known species of Hispaniola, is quite gone and that the smaller 

 P. hylaeum is now confined to forested areas in the Samana Bay 

 region of northeastern Dominican Republic. Dr. W. L. 

 Abbott, who discovered it here in 1923, wrote that his speci- 

 mens were obtained for him by an old man who "caught them 

 with dogs in hollow trees down near a lagoon near sea shore." 

 The four adult females were all pregnant, each containing, in 

 early December, a single young, indicating a slow rate of 

 breeding, which he observes, "will probably help their extinc- 

 tion." He supposes that they may still have been abundant 

 in the region and at that time were little hunted for food. They 

 can climb to some extent, but their short tail and general 

 stout appearance indicate that terrestrial habits are more 

 typical. For this reason they are the more liable to attack by 

 the introduced Burmese mongoose. Since Dr. Abbott's visit 

 in 1923, William J. Clench, of the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, secured two other specimens for that institution, in 

 the same general region, in August 1937. These were an 

 adult male and a half-grown animal of the same sex, doubtless 

 born earlier in the same year. 



Nothing is known of the habits and haunts of P. aedium 

 beyond the few statements of Cuvier, to whom Ricord reported 

 that in "Santo Domingo" the animal was known a century 

 ago as " Rat-Cay es," or house rat, because it frequented settled 

 areas. It was active only by night, hiding during the day. 

 The male and female of a pair remained usually together. Its 

 principal food consisted of roots and fruits; hence its flesh 

 was good to eat, and the Haitians hunted it with such zeal 

 that even at that time it had become very rare. From the fact 

 that Miller unearthed six lower jaws from a cave in the interior 

 of Haiti in 1925 and de Booy had previously secured a jaw 

 from old kitchen middens at San Pedro de Macoris on the 

 south coast of the island about 60 kilometers east of San 

 Domingo City, it may have been that P. aedium was the 



