Vol. 32, pp. 45-48 April 11, 1919 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THK 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



GENERAL NOTES. 



THE GENERIC NAMES ANOA AND BUBALUS. 



In the sixth installment of his important paper "On Some External 

 Characters of Ruminant Artiodactyla," 1 Mr. R. I. Pocock decides that 

 Anoa 2 can not be maintained as a valid genus apart from Bubalus; 3 and 

 inasmuch as the former name has page priority, he concludes that all the 

 species of the Indian water-buffalo group, including bubalis, mindorensis, 

 depressicornis, and their allies, must be placed together in a genus called 

 Anoa. Both of these arguments are open to further consideration. The 

 International Code does not provide for page priority except in a recom- 

 mendation to revisers that it serve as a guide in making selections between 

 available names of even date. Since Lydekker, in 1913, 4 with all the known 

 facts before him, has deliberately chosen Bubalus over Anoa for a group 

 combining all the forms under discussion, Anoa can not now replace 

 Bubalus unless it can be shown that some other author has forestalled 

 Lydekker's action by an earlier selection. I have been unable to find any 

 previous writer, who has dealt with this group, with a sufficiently modern 

 knowledge of the nomenclature involved to entitle him to figure as a 

 "first reviser"; and apparently Lydekker's selection of Bubalus must 

 stand for those who wish to combine the two genera. There is, however, 

 a considerable reason why Anoa and Bubalus should not be combined. 

 The ten skulls of Anoa, representing two distinct species, that I have 

 examined since I published my paper on the buffaloes in these Proceedings 

 in 1911 s all agree in the possession of only two lower premolars, which 

 seems to be the normal number for these dwarfish Celebesian buffaloes. 

 It seems quite out of the question, considering this very unusual bovine 

 dental formula, to do away with Anoa as a valid genus. 



— N. Hollister. 



lAnn. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 9, vol. 2, pp. 456-459. December, 1918. 



2H. Smith, Griffith's Cuvier's Anim. Kingd., vol. 5, p. 355. 1827. 



3Idem, p. 371. 



••Cat. Ungulate Mamm. Brit. Mus., vol. 1, p. 40. 1913. 



5Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 24, pp. 191-194. June 23, 1911. 



13— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. 32, 1919. (45) 



