EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



1929c), suggests that the remains of this genus identified as 

 I. portoricensis, occurring abundantly in the Indian cultural 

 deposits in the region of Samana Bay, Dominican Republic, 

 were probably brought in originally by the Indians, if not 

 directly from Puerto Rico, at least as domesticated stock from 

 that island, for food. The smaller form native to Haiti and 

 doubtless extending to other parts of Hispaniola was found 

 sparingly in kitchen middens but is the sole one represented in 

 the great number of remains from the caves near St. Michel in 

 the central part of Haiti. Imperfect skulls also were found in 

 a small deposit at San Gabriel near Samana Bay, a deposit 

 which, like that at St. Michel, was probably due to the giant 

 barn owl, Tyto ostolaga, now extinct, which must have sub- 

 sisted largely on these animals and died out when they be- 

 came too few to sustain it. At what time the animal vanished 

 is, of course, indeterminate, but the implication is that the 

 aborigines about Samana Bay, at least, found it easier to 

 subsist on /. portoricensis, which they may have domesticated, 

 than to hunt the smaller Haitian animal, which may already 

 have become scarce or restricted in distribution at about the 



time of the discovery. 



- 



NARROW-TOOTHED HUTIA 



APHAETREUS MONTANUS Miller 



Aphaetreus montanus Miller, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 74, no. 3, pp. 3, 4, Oct. 1C, 

 1922; also vol. 81, no. 9, p. 16, 1929 ("Larger of the two caves northeast of St. 

 Michel tie 1'Atalaye, northwest end of Central Plain," Haiti). 



Fios.: Miller, 1929a, pi. 2, figs. 4, 4a, 4b. 



This is another remarkable octodont rodent, of about the 

 size of Isolobodon and closely related to it, but so far as known 

 confined to the island of Hispaniola and now apparently too 

 exterminated. 



It was first described by Miller from mandibles from the 

 cave deposit northeast of St. Michel, Haiti, among the moun- 

 tains. The teeth differ conspicuously from those of Isolobodon 

 and Plagiodontia, which they somewhat resemble in their 

 diagonally placed enamel plates, through a further develop- 

 ment of these folds, so that the posterior of the two inner 

 folds extends across and fuses with the outer, thus cutting off 

 a posterior transverse space. In addition the teeth are re- 



