ART. 16 THE GENUS PLAGIODONTIA MILLER 6 



mon article of food by the natives in Porto Rico, the Virgin Islands, 

 and the Domuiican Republic during late pre-Columbian times. ^° 

 Both Gabb and Abbott obtained the remains of this animal together 

 with those of Plagiodontia in the kitchenmiddens at San Lorenzo 

 Bay, whUe Mr. de Booy found it to be by far the most abundantly 

 represented rodent in the large mound which he worked out at San 

 Pedro de Macoris. With the arrival of Doctor Abbott's specimens 

 in Washington the generic identity of the animal with the one de- 

 scribed by Cuvier was immediately established; but a comparison 

 of this material with that from San Lorenzo Bay and Macoris sug- 

 gested the possibility that two species might be represented, and 

 raised the further question as to the exact determmation of the 

 animal collected by Ricord. In the hope of obtaining enough 

 specimens to put these doubts to rest I have delayed publication until 

 the present time. 



The material now at hand convinces me that the genus Plagiodontia 

 includes two species. Unfortunately it is necessary to decide some- 

 what arbitrarily as to the one which shall bear the name sedium. 

 The descriptions given by Cuvier and Gervais are not sufficiently 

 detailed to be conclusive; they might perhaps have been based on 

 either animal. In 1904 I examined the type skin in Paris. The 

 skull could not be found; and I have recently been informed by Mr. 

 J. Berlioz that it is still missing. The skin is mounted and its color 

 is obviously faded from long exposure to light. The notes which I 

 then made are as follows : 



Mounted specimen in fair condition, though somewhat faded and 

 with end of tail broken off. Tail naked, smooth, the scales small and 

 not imbricated, irregular in arrangement and form, but tending to be 

 rounded-pentagonal; 30 mm. from base of tail they are scarcely 

 more than 1 mm. in diameter. General color a faded grayish buff, 

 much darkened by blackish and dark broccoli-brown hair tips, but 

 the lighter color everywhere a little in excess. Underparts light 

 isabella-color. Feet indefinite dusky. Ears naked internally, thickly 

 furred along edge and apparently on outer side also. Head and body, 

 380; tail, 120; hind foot with claws, 74, without claws 68. 



On the basis of these notes in conjunction with the two descriptions 

 and figures there appear to be three featm-es which indicate that the 

 animal collected by Ricord was not the one recently found by Doctor 

 Abbott, namely : In the type specimen the tail seems more conspicu- 

 ously scaled than in the species now occurring on the Samana Pen- 

 insula, the color as described by both Cuvier and Gervais and as 

 represented on Cuvier's plate is more yellowish, and the mandibular 

 teeth, as figured by both writers are less like those of the Abbott 

 specimens than they are like those of one found by de Booy at San 



m See Miller, Proc. U. S; Nat. Mus., vol. 64, pp. 507-508. October 15, 1918 



