14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 82 



can Republic (the type specimen came from San Pedro de Macoris), 

 a fact that shows how universally it was liked as food. Finally the 

 account of stiff, pointed, erect-standing hairs of the back seems 

 especially applicable to a relative of the South American spiny-rats. 



THE CORI 



Oviedo had first-hand knowledge of the cori. Consequently his 

 description of it is more detailed and accurate than in the case of 

 the three preceding animals. He writes : " The cori is a small quad- 

 ruped, the size of a half grown young rabbit. These coris appear to be 

 a species of the rabbit kind although they have a muzzle like a rat but 

 not so pointed. They have very small ears which they hold so close 

 that it appears as if they lacked them or did not have any. They 

 have no tail whatever ; they are very slender as to feet and hands from 

 the joints or hams downward; they have three fingers and another 

 smaller, and very slender. They are wholly white, and others every- 

 where black, and the most of them spotted with both colors. Also 

 some are wholly reddish and some spotted with reddish and white." 

 Continuing his account he says that the coris are kept in the house 

 and fed on grass, with some cassava to fatten them. He has eaten 

 them and found them to taste like young rabbit. When he wrote 

 they were plentiful in Santo Domingo City. They were also to be 

 found on other islands and on the mainland. 



It is not difficult to recognize the guineapig in this account of the 

 cori ; but if any doubts might have existed, in the absence of more 

 tangible evidence, they are disposed of by Mr. Krieger's discovery 

 of the two Cavia jaws in the kitchenmidden at Anadel. It remains 

 an open question whether the guineapig was introduced by the Span- 

 iards or by native trade with South America. I incline to the first 

 alternative, chiefly because remains of the animal have been found 

 in only one midden. Bones of cow, horse, and pig, as well as artifacts 

 of European origin occasionally occur in the Indian deposits, showing 

 that the native village sites continued to be used for some time after 

 the Spanish conquest began, and that material brought in by the 

 newcomers found its way to the aboriginal refuse heaps. Such might 

 easily have been the history of the guineapig jaws at Anadel. 



THE DUMB DOG 



In his account of the hutia we found Oviedo alluding to a native 

 dog that could not bark, but which was, nevertheless, very useful 

 as a game getter. On pages 390-391 of the 185 1 edition of his book 



