14 Hollistci — The Generic Name of the Muskrat. 



According to Canon XXVI of the A. 0. U. code (XXII of 

 the revised edition) inasmuch as no genotypes were designated 

 for Myocastor Kerr and Ondatra Link the latter at once became 

 a synonym of Myocastor. Lacepede's Ondatra was of course 

 preoccupied by Ondatra Link. According to the International 

 code, however, it is necessary to fix the types of these various 

 genera to settle their respective standings. The types of Castor 

 and Mus are fixed by tautonymy, and Allen has, by the pro- 

 cess of elimination, fixed the type of Myocastor.* It remains 

 then only to fix the type of Ondatra Link. Every logical 

 argument is in favor of naming Ondatra zibethicus as the type 

 of this genus, and thus reinstate the name Ondatra for the 

 muskrat. The name is distinctively applicable to the animal, and 

 with a slightly broader interpretation of tautonymy than seems 

 at present allowed by the code, zibethicus would automatically 

 be the type, " Ondatra. Buffon hist. not. X. p. I. t. I " appear- 

 ing in the synonymy of Gmelin's Mus zibethicus. It seems 

 unsafe to choose it as such at this late day, however, with the 

 uncertainty as to whether Palmer (Index Generum Mamma- 

 Hum, Appendix, p. 951) has not already unintentionally fixed 

 Mus coypus in that position. Palmer, under Ondatra Lacepede, 

 1799, states: " Not Ondatra Link, 1795, a synonym of Myo- 

 castor Kerr, 1792 (type Mus coypus Molina), which is a genus 

 of Octodontidse." That a difference of opinion regarding this 

 question might always obtain was at once apparent when it 

 was submitted to several nomenclatorial experts. In order to 

 settle it definitely I, therefore, choose Ondatra coypus as the 

 type of Ondatra Link, 1795. 



This selection will, at any rate, bring about the same results 

 by both codes; satisfy the few American mammalogists w r ho 

 are, unfortunately, still loyal to the A. 0. U. code; and per- 

 petuate the name Fiber, under which the great mass of literature 

 relating to the animal has been published. 



* Myocastor coypus; Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., VII, ]>. 183, 1895. 



