12 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. «2 



Kilometer 2 site. — Palate, i ; odd teeth, 8 ; vertebrae, 2. 



Kilometer 4 site. — Fragments of occipital region, 2 ; fragments of 

 mandible, 2; broken ribs, 13; humerus, i ; distal end of humerus, i; 

 fragment of scapula, i; fragment of femur, i. 



These specimens do not differ appreciably from Florida material, 

 except that the alveoli in the palate found at the Kilometer 2 village 

 site appear to be exceptionally large. 



THE MAMMALS DESCRIBED BY OVIEDO 



Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes (1478-1557), the first 

 European chronicler of things West Indian, was alcalde of Santo 

 Domingo City from January, 1536, to August, 1546. In his Historia 

 General y Natural de las Indias, Book 12, Chapters i to 6 (pp. 

 389-392 of the edition issued by the Royal Academy of History, 

 Madrid, 1851) he described the following mammals as known or 

 believed by him to inhabit the island of Hispaniola: the hutia, the 

 quemi, the mohuy, the cori, the dumb dog (" perro mudo") and 

 the mice ("mures 6 ratones "). 



Hitherto there has been much doubt as to the exact identification 

 of these animals, for the reason that Plagiodontia (ediuni and Solcno- 

 don paradoxus were, up to a few years ago, the only indigenous 

 mammals known, other than bats and sea-cows. It now seems possible, 

 however, to allocate all of Oviedo's names, with the exception of 

 the " dumb dog." I shall take them up in order. 



the hutia 



Oviedo writes that there occur in this island of Hispaniola, and 

 in others lying in the seas near it, animals called hutia, four-footed, 

 and resembling a rabbit, but smaller sized, smaller eared and rat-tailed. 

 The natives, he says, kill them with small dogs that they have in 

 domestication, dumb and not knowing how to bark ; and the Christians 

 do this much better with the dogs they brought from Spain. " These 

 animals are grizzled gray (pardo gris) in color according to the 

 evidence of many who have seen and eaten them and who praise 

 them as food ; and there are now many persons in this city of Santo 

 Domingo and in this island who say so. But at present these animals 

 are no longer found except very rarely." 



This account would apply so well to the species of Plagiodontia, 

 and presumably also to the Isolohodons, that there seems to be no 

 reason to doubt that these were the animals that Oviedo had in mind. 

 By the present day Dominicans the name seems to have been trans- 



