108 General Notes. 



and would, thus clash into the other. Similarly gra'cus and grecus could 

 not be admitted side by side, nor borneoensis and borneends, cunadiensu 

 and canadensis. 



Besides the emendation reason for this distinction between the treat- 

 ment of genera and species, it must be remembered that the chances 

 are gi-eatly against two closely similar generic names coming very near 

 each other in the system, or being frequently used by the same person. 

 On the other hand, to have two species of the same genus, and even from 

 the same country, with closelj' similar names would prodvice the maxi- 

 mum of inconvenience, with no corresponding advantage in the direc- 

 tion of stability, uniformity or logicalness. 



Dr. Allen quotes me as agreeing with him in the vise of Dama for the 

 American Deer, but I hapf)ened to be correcting the proofs of the de- 

 scription of ''Dama rothsehildi" when his paper came in, and I used the 

 name without very close enquiry. On further consideration, however, I 

 think I was Avrong, and should now be disposed to adopt on this subject 

 both Mr. Miller's conclusions* and his reasons for them, calling the 

 Coiba Deer Odocoileus rothsrhildi. 



In connection with disputed points in nomenclature I may take this 

 opportunity of pointing out that Nyctimene, Bechsteinf , with the type 

 " Fd.syjerijYif cepAaZf><ds" Pallas, antedates Cephahtes Geoffroy (1810), and 

 that the type of the latter should also be V. cepJialotes, following the 

 rule recently published in Science:}:. The name Cephahtes will become a 

 synonym of Nyctimene, and Dobsonia Palmer, will stand for the bat 

 called GepJialotes by Dobson and Mst^tschie. ^Oldjield Thomas. 



P. S. Sept. 1, 1902. 



It has been objected that in the above note the undeniable difference 

 between a mere adjectival declension such as picat-us, -a -um, and a 

 more essential modification, such as from Abrothrix to Habrothrix, has 

 been too much ignored, and that my arguments depend on there being 

 no real difference between them. But this is not so, for quite apart 

 from any such argument, I hold that since on the one hand such double 

 forms as gi'cecus and grecus, canadensis and canadiensis should not be 

 both admitted side by side, and on the other that essentially similar 

 forms of generic names such as Pridontes and Prioyunlon should be so 

 admitted, a line has to be drawn somewhere between the two extremes, 

 and that this line may most naturally, certainly and conveniently be 

 placed between genus and species. 



No other suggestions, .so far as I know, have been made for the draw- 

 ing of the line required, authors (like Dr. Allen in the case of Alee and 

 Alces) who cavil at the one-letter rule not saying at what point they 

 would cease to consider two similar words synonymous. Xor do I know 

 what is the opinion of the extreme one-letter men about such si^ecific 

 names as those above quoted. — 0. T. 



*Supra, p. 39. 



fSyst. Uebers. Yierf. Thiere. II, p. 615. 1800. 



iscience, N. S. XVI, p. 114. July 18, 1903. 



