204 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



Among the material in the collection of the U. S. National Museum 

 is a single skull (No. 14010) of an agouti from the island of Montserrat, 

 collected by Fred Driver, and received May 20, 1902. It is that of a 

 female, and the condition of the basi-occipital suture shows that it is 

 not fully adult, though probably mature. This specimen is slightly 

 smaller than the skull of D. albida of St. Vincent, and differs remark- 

 ably in the narrowness of the zygomata and brain-case, narrow palate, 

 and contracted opening of the posterior nares. The conformation 

 of the palate is especially striking, for the posterior prolongations of 

 the maxillaries are so reduced as to be almost absent along the pos- 

 terior half of the alveolar border, instead of broadly tapering to the 

 inner angle of the last molar, as in all the other specimens examined. 

 The palatal bone therefore practically occupies the full width of the 

 posterior half of the palate. The antorbital foramen is much reduced 

 in vertical extent as compared with specimens from other islands; and 

 the maxillary pit is elliptical in outline, and smaller than in Trinidad 

 skulls. The incisive foramina are long, and reach the maxillo-pre- 

 maxillary suture. 



This skull measures as follows: — greatest length, 90; basal length, 

 67; palatal length, 33; length of nasals, 30.5; median length of frontal 

 suture, 37; zygomatic breadth, 42; mastoid breadth, 32; diastema, 

 22; upper molar row (alveoli), 18; lower molar row (alveoli), 19; 

 anterior width of palate between inner borders of alveoli, 7.6. 



The structure of the palate in this single specimen is so different 

 from that of any other agouti I have examined that it may be merely 

 an abnormality; so that, in view of this possibility, and the fact of 

 its being not fully adult, it seems best to await additional specimens 

 before naming it. 



A skull from the island of St. Kitts, also in the U. S. National Mu- 

 seum, has very broad short nasals, but is evidently immature, and 

 somewhat abnormal owing to a fracture of the premaxillary, and the 

 loss of the upper right incisor. Probably a series of agoutis from the 

 various islands of the Lesser Antilles would show that they had become 

 slightly differentiated on all or most of them. 



Antillean Distribution of Dasyprocta. — The agouti must formerly 

 have been rather generally distributed throughout most of the Lesser 

 Antilles. De Rochefort, in 1658, included it among the five species 

 of mammals listed as native to Tobago, and gives a crude picture of 

 one sitting on its haunches, and eating leaves which it holds in its 

 forepaws. It is still found on Grenada, where, however, it is confined 

 to the small area of primeval forest yet remaining among the hills 



