38 General Notes. 



It is probable that the earlier ancestral forms of the Delphinidse were 

 allied to Squalodon an<l that tbe families Squalodontidse and Delphinidse 

 are offshoots from a common stem, though from the little that is known 

 of the vertebral column and limbs of the squalodonts the hypothesis still 

 appears tenable that the Delphinidse originated from a stock distinct from 

 the former, but having somewhat similar tuberculate teeth. 



The teeth of the fossil species have been compared with the type-teeth of 

 Delphinodon mento and I), wymani, with the result that it can be referred 

 with certainty to that genus, and is possibly identical with the latter 

 species. The genus Delphinodon, therefore, which has hitherto been 

 regarded as belonging to the Squalodontidse, is now to be transferred to 

 the family Delphinidse. 



A full description of the fossil skeleton, with illustrations, will be pub- 

 lished by the National Museum at an early date. 



—Frederick W. True. 



NOTE ON THE MUS COMMISSAR I IS OF MEARXS. 

 [By permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution] 



In 1005, Dr. Edgar A. Mearns described a house mouse from Davao, 

 Mindanao, Philippine Islands, as Mus commissarius , basing his account 

 on two specimens.* The U. S. National Museum contains ten additional 

 examples of this animal, two from San Fernando do Union, Luzon, six 

 from Tokio, Japan, and two from the vicinity of Misaki, south of Tokio. 

 The Japanese specimens agree in all essential characters with those from 

 the Philippines, and the series as a whole represents a form easily dis- 

 tinguishable from Mus muscuJus by its cranial characters. The skull is 

 slightly smaller than that of the cosmopolitan animal, but the teeth are 

 disproportionately reduced and the distance between the maxillary tooth- 

 rows is appreciably less. The audital bullae are also, as pointed out in 

 the original description, somewhat reduced in size. 



— Gerrit S. Miller, Jr. 



ON THE CORRECT NAME OF THE INCA TERN. 



Mr. Oberbolser has shown (Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 

 Quarterly Issue, Vol. 48, part I, May 13, 1005, 01 ) that N;vnia Boie is 

 untenable as the generic name for the Inca Tern. He adopts Inca 

 Jardine (Contr. Orn. 1850, 32) but unfortunately this name is also 

 untenable on account of Inca Lepeletier and Serville (Encycl. Meth., 

 Zoology, Vol. N, 1825, 380) for a genus of Coleoptera. The next avail- 

 able name is apparently Larosterna Blyth (Cat. Birds Mus. As. Soc, 

 1852, 293) and the species will stand as, Laroslerna inca (Lesson). 



—J. H. Riley. 



* Proc. U.S. National Museum, XXVIII, p. 449, May 13, 1905. 



