Vol. XII, pp. 99-104 April 30, 1898 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



THE EARLIEST GENERIC NAME FOR THE NORTH 

 AMERICAN DEER, WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF FIVE 

 NEW SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES. 



BY C. HART MERRIAM. 



For many years the generic name Qariacus Lesson, 1842, stood 

 unchallenged for our Virginia Deer and its allies. In February, 

 1895, Mr. Oldfield Thomas reinstated Gloger's Dorcelaphus, as 

 having one year priority, hut stated that it was by no means 

 clear that this name would stand, since it was antedated, he was 

 informed by Dr. T. S. Palmer, by two of Rafinesque's names' — 

 Panallodon, 1831, and Odocoileus, 183*2. I have not been able to 

 see a copy of the rare publication in which Rafinesque's Pqnallo- 

 don appeared. It is entitled ' Enumeration and Account of some 

 remarkable natural objects of the Cabinet of Professor Rafinesque, 

 in Philadelphia,' and is said to have been published in Philadel- 

 phia in November, 1831. In a review in ' The Monthly Amer- 

 ican Journal of Geology and Natural Science ' for May, 1832 

 (Vol. I, No. 11, pp. 509-510), it is said that Panallodon " owes its 

 existence to a jawbone, six inches long, found in a Solar temple 

 in Kentucky. He [Rafinesque] thinks this akin to mazama, 

 which was somewhat similar to the antelopes, but having teeth 

 'more like some carnivorous animals, but no canine tooth.'" 

 Apart from the insufficiency of the diagnosis, the small size of 

 the jaw and character of the teeth indicate that the animal could 

 not have been a deer. 



Rejecting Panallodon as untenable, the name next in order of 



Ji— Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XII, 1898 (99) 



