ALLEN: MAMMALS OF THE WEST INDIES. 179 



If its North American origin be admitted, this mamma.] is certain 

 evidence of a former land connection bet ween Cuba and Florida. 

 Moreover, remains of a very similar species (M. jeffersoni) have been 

 found in the peninsula of Florida. Probably the genus Capromys 

 was contemporaneous in Cuba with this sloth. Part of the skull of 

 an extinct species (C. columbianus), differing markedly, however, in 

 the conformation of the palate from its living relatives, has been 

 described from a cavern deposit of this island. The nearest living 

 representative of the Cuban Capromys on the mainland is the much 

 smaller Procapromys geayi from the mountains between La Guaira 

 and Caracas, Venezuela. This is looked upon by Chapman as the 

 possible mainland ancestor of the Antillean genus. At all events, 

 these two fossil genera in Cuba point to migrations from both North 

 and Central America (by way of Florida and Yucatan respectively). 



The two other fossil species hitherto reported are Lesser Antillean. 

 The first is a large rodent, Amblyrhiza inundata, now known from 

 cavern deposits in the islands of Anguilla and St. Martin's. This 

 animal is likewise considered of Pleistocene age'; and, though doubt- 

 less related to the South American family Lagostomidae, including 

 the chinchillas, is currently included with the North American genus 

 Castoroides in the Castoroididae. Cope supposed the genus to have 

 reached the Antilles from South America by way of the Windward 

 Islands; but the present evidence does not seem to exclude the chance 

 of its having come from North America along the same route with 

 Megalonyx, provided, of course, that at that time the deep cleft now 

 separating Anguilla from the Greater Antilles did not form a barrier. 



The remaining fossil mammal is an undescribed species of Mega- 

 lomys, briefly mentioned by Major, from Barbuda. This simply 

 serves to extend the range of this recent genus to the more northern 

 Lesser Antilles, throughout which it probably once ranged. 



Turning now to the bats, we find at present recorded from the West 

 Indies no less than thirty-one genera. On many of the islands local 

 forms have developed which are sufficiently marked to be entitled to 

 rank as local races or even species, although this matter is in part one 

 of personal opinion. Since the trinomial better expresses such evi- 

 dent relationships between the forms on neighboring islands, I have, 

 in the following pages, adopted this in preference to a binomial desig- 

 nation in cases where specimens have been personally studied, or 

 where previous writers have shown preference for a trinomial title. 

 Although the bat fauna of the W^est Indies may be considered fairly 

 well known, there are many islands from which few if any species are 



