198 General Notes. 



and would thus clash into the other. Similarly grcecus and greens could 

 not be admitted side by side, nor borneoensis and borneemis, canadiensis 

 and canadensis. 



Besides the emendation reason for this distinction between the treat 

 ment of genera and species, it must be remembered that the chances 

 are greatly against two closely similar generic names coming very near 

 each other in the system, or being frequently used by the same person. 

 On the other hand, to have two species of the same genus, and even from 

 the same country, with closely similar names would produce the maxi 

 mum of inconvenience, with no corresponding advantage in the direc 

 tion of stability, \fnif ormity or logicalness. 



Dr. Allen quotes me as agreeing with him in the use of Dama for the 

 American Deer, but I happened to be correcting the proofs of the de 

 scription of "Dama rothseh&di" when his paper came in, and I used the 

 name without very close enquiry. On further consideration, however, I 

 think I was wrong, and should now be disposed to adopt on this subject 

 both Mr. Miller's conclusions* and his reasons for them, calling the 

 Coiba Deer Odocoileus rothschildi. 



In connection with disputed points in nomenclature I may take this 

 opportunity of pointing out that Nyctimene, Bechsteinf, with the type 

 " Vespertilio cephalotes" Pallas, antedates Cephalotes Geoffrey (1810), and 

 that the type of the latter should also be F. cepJialotes, following the 

 rule recently published in Science^. The name Cephalotes will become a 

 synonym of Nyctimene, and Dobsonia Palmer, will stand for the bat 

 called Cephalotes by Dobson and Matschie. Oldfield Thomas. 



P. S. Sept. 1, 1902. 



It has been objected that in the above note the undeniable difference 

 between a mere adjectival declension such as picat-us, -a -um, and a 

 more essential modification, such as from Abrothrix to Habrothrix, has 

 been too much ignored, and that my arguments depend on there being 

 no real difference between them. But this is not so, for quite apart 

 from any such argument, I hold that since on the one hand such double 

 forms as grcecus and grecus, canadensis and canadiensis should not be 

 both admitted side by side, and on the other that essentially similar 

 forms of generic names such as Pridontes and Prionodon should be so 

 admitted, a line has to be drawn somewhere between the two extremes, 

 and that this line may most naturally, certainly and conveniently be 

 placed between genus and species. 



No other suggestions, so far as I know, have been made for the draw 

 ing of the line required, authors (like Dr. Allen in the case of Alee and 

 Alces] who cavil at the one-letter rule not saying at what point they 

 would cease to consider two similar words synonymous. Nor do I know 

 what is the opinion of the extreme one-letter men about such specific 

 names as those above quoted. 0. T. 



*Supra, p. 39. 



fSyst. Uebers. Yierf. Thiere. II, p. 615. 1800. 



{Science, N. S. XVI, p. 114. July 18, 1902. 



