200 General Notes. 



THE PROPER NAME OF THE MEXICAN TAMANDUA. 



I am indebted to Mr. Walter L. Hahn, Aid, Division of Mammals, U. S. 

 National Museum, for calling my attention to De Saussure's description of 

 the Mexican Tamandua in his " Note sur quelques Mammiferes du Mex- 

 ique," published in the January, 1860, number of the " Revue et Magasin 

 de Zoologie," (2e, Vol. XII, 1860, pp. 9-11). The description is based on 

 specimens from the State of Tabasco, and is very satisfactory and complete, 

 especially of the skull, and very clearly points out the cranial differences 

 that distinguish the Mexican form from the " Tamandua du Bresil." He 

 Calls it " Myrmecophaga tamandua (?) Desm. (Var. Mfxicana, Sauss.)." As 

 this name has nearly forty-five years' priority over my tenuirostris for the 

 same form (Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist, Vol. XX, p. 394, Oct. 29, 1904), the 

 correct name of the Mexican Tamandua is Tamandua tetradactyla mexicana 

 (Saussure). As DeSaussure's name mexicana is not given by Trouessart in 

 his " Catalogus Mammalium," nor cited by Gray and other general writers 

 on the group, it was easily overlooked in preparing my paper on "The 

 Tamandau Anteaters." /. A. Allen. 



