70 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 



THE TYPE LOCALITY OF PECAKI TAJACU. 



The Linnsean name Sus tajacu * has been apphed by recent mammal- 

 ogists, almost without exception, to the South American collared peccary. 

 There is now no misunderstanding as to its use in this group rather than 

 to one of the larger white-lipped peccaries (Tayassu). Recently, how- 

 ever, Thomas has proposed,! by use of a consistent method for determin- 

 ing bases of all Liunaean mammal names of 1758, to fix the type locality of 

 Sus tajacu in Mexico. Practical and convenient as it is in most cases, 

 this method is faulty in the case of the peccary, as the name has already 

 been definitely fixed on a South American species by earlier workers. 



Linnfeus gave the range of his Sus tajacu as " Mexico, Panama, 

 Brazil." Cope,+ in reporting on a collection of mammals from Brazil, 

 separated the peccary of Texas as a new species, thus virtually, as " first 

 reviser," restricting the Linntean tajacu to Brazil. Mearns,§ Bangs, || and 

 Merriam,ir the next writers to describe new forms, did so with the belief 

 that Cope's action was settled and definite. Bangs even remarked that 

 " when Prof. Cope named the Texan peccary angulatus he irrevocably 

 restricted the Linnpean name tajacu to the peccary of southern Brazil." 

 In this particular case the selection of Mexico as the type locality is open 

 to further question because the final basis for this fixation, "Tyson's 

 description of what he calls a Mexican Musk-Hog," refers as much to 

 South America as to ^Mexico. Tyson,** in describing the anatomy of the 

 animal which came under his observation, gives no clew as to the origin 

 of the specimen and simply uses the nanae "u4per Mexicanus Moschiferus 

 or Mexico Musk Hog " as we would say Carolina wren, English sparrow, 

 or Chinese pheasant, regardless of where the specimen was captured. 

 So far as can be ascertained from a reading of Tyson's account, his speci- 

 men may well have come from some South American port. 



Before this proposed change of names goes further, it seems important 

 to consider all these facts. Except from evidence that might be furnished 

 by the discovery of a type specimen, it seems to me that it is not possible 

 to change the type locality of Pecari tajacu to Mexico, as an actual first 

 reviser has already fixed it in Brazil. — N. Hollister. 



A NEW NAME FOR THE WHITE-TAILED JACK RABBIT. 



The name in use for the white-tailed jack rabbit of the Great Plains, 

 Lepus campestris Bachman (Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 7, 

 p. 349, 1837), is preoccupied by Lepus cuniculiis campestris Meyer (Mag. 

 f. Thiergesch., vol. 1, p. 55, 1790), a synonym of Oryctolagus cuniculus. 

 The Lepus campestris of Bachman may be replaced by Lepus townsendii 

 campanius. The two western subspecies of this jack rabbit will be 

 known as Lepus toivnsendii townsendii Bachman and Lepus townsendii 

 sierrse Merriam. — N. Hollister. 



•Syst. Nat.. 10 ed., vol. 1, p. 50. 1758. 



t Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1911, p. 140. 



X Amer. Nat., vol. 23, p. 147. February, 1889. 



§ Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus.. vol. 20, p. 469. 1897. 



II Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 12, pp. 164-165. August 10, 1898. 



IT Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 14, pp. 102, 119-124. ,Tuly 19, 1901, 



** Phil. Trans., 1683, pp. 3,59-385. 



