296 Mr. Gray on Phuhau/ista Cookii. 



sum." Mr. Ogilby's observations in no degree altered the view 

 which I had already taken, but satisfied me, that as our courses were 

 diametrically opposite, we could not possibly interfere with each other; 

 and I did not hesitate, when adding my notes to Mr. Gunn's com- 

 munication, to publish my long-formed opinion on the subject of one 

 of the species therein mentioned. I did not refer to Mr. Ogilby's 

 observations, because (as they were then unpublished) I might have 

 unconsciously misrepresented them, and I could have referred to 

 them for no other purpose than that of controverting his views, a 

 task which on all occasions I would if possible avoid. Neither did 

 I refer to the specimens, of which there are three, in the collection of 

 the British Museum, and that for the same reason as is stated for the 

 same forbearance on the part of Mr. Ogilby himself, " because I was 

 unacquainted with their precise habitat," the localities obtained from 

 dealers being in most cases difficult of verification. That they are 

 of the same species with that figured in Cook's Voyage, I never en- 

 tertained a doubt, and the specific name of Cookii was consequently 

 long since attached to one of them, which has been for several years 

 in the collection : the only recent alteration has been to substitute 

 in place of the paper label another painted one bearing my new ge- 

 neric name. 



With respect to the " supposition" that this was done in conse- 

 quence of a visit to the Museum of the Zoological Society, and a re- 

 freshment of my memory from the abstract of Mr. Ogilby's observa- 

 tions in the minute book of the Society, I have only to state, that I 

 have not visited the Museum for some months, except on the Anni- 

 versary Meeting of the Society held therein on the 30th of April, 

 the day on which Mr. Ogilby's communication was published in 

 your last Number ; that I have never inspected the minute book for 

 this or any similar purpose ; and further, that I have never seen Mr. 

 Ogilby's name attached to the skins of either of the species of Pha- 

 langista in question, or to the mutilated portions of the skin of A. 

 Doria in the Society's collection. If I have reproduced Mr. Ogilby's 

 observations " almost word for word," one or other of us must have 

 been singularly unfortunate in the choice of expressions, our views 

 being so totally unlike ; but I am wholly unconscious of any such 

 coincidence; and it is not the least remarkable part of the "suppo- 

 sition," that I am at the same time accused of this extreme accuracy 

 of memory, and of having entirely forgotten the only point in which 

 I was immediately and personally interested. 



Two other questions of nomenclature are introduced by Mr. Ogilby. 

 The first of them has reference to my generic name for the group of 



