VOL. XIV, PP. 119-124 JULY 19, 1901 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



DESCRIPTIONS OF FOUR NEW PECCARIES 

 FROM MEXICO. 



BY C. HART MERRIAM. 



A preliminary study of the Mexican Peccaries in the collec 

 tion of the Biological Survey of the IT. S. Department of Ag 

 riculture, shows that the Collared Peccary (7t/<(ssu angulatus) 

 is separable into several strongly marked subspecies, that a very 

 distinct dwarf species of the same group inhabits Cozumel 

 Island off the coast of Yucatan, and that the large South Ameri 

 can White-lipped Peccary (albirostris* llligev-labiatus Ouvier), 

 not previously known from Mexico, is represented in the State 

 of Campeche by a strongly marked subspecies of which four 

 specimens were recently collected by E. W. Nelson and E. A. 

 Goldman. 



The American Peccaries comprise two very distinct super- 

 specific or subgeneric types, which may be' designated as (a) the 



*tfus albiroxtris Illiger (1815) antedates by two years Dieotyle* labiatus 

 C'uvier (1817) and is therefore, so far as known, the earliest specific 

 name for the White-lipped Peccary. Illiger's original reference is as 

 follows: "The two species of swine or peccaries peculiar to South 

 America, the Sun T<ijx* and the Tagnicati (Sun albirostris] distin 

 guished for the first time by Azara, must form a special group within 

 the genus. They have hardly any tail and only one claw on the hind 

 feet" (p. 115). Illiger, Abhand. K. Akad. Wiss. Berlin (1811), pp. 108, 

 115, 1815. 



20 BIOL. Soc. WASH. VOL. XIV, 1901. (119) 



