Vol. XXIV, pp. 101-102 May 15, 1911 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF Til E 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



NEW NAMES FOR TWO SUBSPECIES OF PEROMYSCUS 

 MA NICULA TUS ( W AG N ER ) . 



BY EDGAR A. MEARNS. 



Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, Jr., has drawn my attention to the fact 

 that the names applied by me to two forms of the genus 

 Peromyscus, defined in 1890, were preoccupied, and are there- 

 fore not available. 



The name Hesperomys leucopus arcticus Mearns ( 1890 )* must be consid- 

 ered as preoccupied by " [Hesperomys] arcticus, Sauss." of Coues 1877, t in 

 accordance with "opinion 4," rendered by the international commission 

 on zoological nomenclature,* which affirms that "manuscript names acquire 

 standing in nomenclature when printed in connection with the provisions 

 of Art. 'S>,§ and the question as to their validity is not influenced by the 

 fact whether such names are accepted or rejected by the author respon- 

 sible for their publication." In this case it is evident that the author did 

 not intend to set up arcticus as the name of a valid form, as, indeed, he 

 expressly stated that he considered it to show not the slightest departure 

 from the ordinary form of leucopus. The name arcticus can not be 

 regarded as a noma/ nudum, as Coues gave a complete history, with no 

 less than eight measurements of specimen No. :i u 24. Moreover, as the 

 animal from Labrador to which Coues attached the name arcticus, in 

 1877, is a synonym of Hesperomys maniculaius Wagner, 1845, the name 

 arcticus disappears from nomenclature || and can not be used for the dif- 

 ferent form from Fort Simpson, Mackenzie, Canada, which I described, 

 in 1890, under the name Hesperomys leucopus arcticus ; for the latter I 

 now propose the name borealis. 



•Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., N. V. II, 1890. p. 285. 



tMonogr. N. Am. Rodentia, 1877, p. 67 (in text) and p. 61 (where the name is mis- 

 printed articus), table xi, line l (.Labrador). 



t Opinions rendered by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. 

 Opinions 1 to 25, publication No. 1938 of the Smithsonian Institution, July, 1910. 



§ International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, 1905, p. 23. 



II" [Hesperomys] bairdii Sauss.", which Coues mentions in the same connection, 

 also from Labrador, has the same status as arcticus; it being a young specimen of 

 Wagner's maniculatus (Not Mus bairdii Hoy and Kennicott, 1856) 



21— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XXIV, 1911. (101) 



