Vol. XXIV, pp. 97-100 May 15, 1911 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



GENERAL NOTES. 



A NEW NAME FOR SOREX MACRURUS BATCHELDER. 



In 1896 I described in these Proceedings (Vol. X, pp. 133-134, Decem- 

 ber 8, 1896) a new species of shrew from the Adirondack Mountains, New 

 York, giving it the name of Sorer macrurus. Through the kindness of 

 Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, Jr., I recently have learned that this use of the 

 name is invalidated, owing to the fact that it was applied in 1822 by 

 J. G. C. Lehmann (Observationes Zoologicae praesertim in Faunam 

 Hamburgensem. Pugillus Primus. ) to the common European water 

 shrew, Neomys fodiens (Schreber). Lehmann's type locality was Sach- 

 senwald, near Friedrichsruh, Sehleswig-Holstein, Germany. 



It therefore becomes necessary to give another name to the Adirondack 

 shrew, and I propose to call it Sorex dispar. 



— Charles Foster Batchelder. 



>* 



&' 



NOTE ON THE OCCURRENCE OF THE WHALE SHARK, RHI- 

 NODON TYPICUS, IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



In the issue of the Philippine Free Press for September 10, 1910, there is 

 published a photograph, with brief description, of a marine monster from 

 Negros Occidental. The photograph was submitted in competition and 

 received the prize for the current week. The newspaper states that two 

 other photographs of the same subject were sent in by other competitors, 

 but the one selected was the best. Throughout the article the animal is 

 referred to as a whale, but the photograph clearly indicates a whale shark, 

 Rhinodon lypicus. 



The creature was 6 meters long, and was caught in a fish trap near 

 Bacolod, Island of Negros, on September 4, 1910. 



This species, so far as known, has not heretofore been reported from the 

 Philippine Archipelago, although its distribution is world-wide.* Outside 

 of the Indian Seas it occurs only as a rare straggler. There have been 

 several records from the Dutch East Indies, so that the capture of a 

 specimen in the Philippines is not unexpected although none the less 



interesting. 



— Hugh M. Smith. 



* See Bean's " The History of the Whale Shark," Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collec- 

 tions, vol. xlviii, 1905. 



23— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XXIV, 1911. (97) - 



