Vol. XI, pp. 241-270 December 17, 1897 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



^' 



A LIST OF THE GENERIC AND FAMILY NAMES OF 



RODENTS. 



BY T. 8. PALMER. 



Generic names of mammals have undergone many changes in 

 recent years, and in no group is this more apparent than in the 

 Rodentia. Not only have new names been proposed for a host 

 of new forms, but man}^ well-known genera now appear under 

 names long forgotten, but revived in obedience to the law of 

 priority. Linnteus, in 1758, recognized only six genera of ro- 

 dents (including Rhinoceros!) ; Agassiz, in 1842-'46, recorded about 

 220 generic names in this order, and ISIarschall, in 1873, added 

 65 more, making a total of somewhat less than 300. The present 

 list contains more than 600 (a large proj)ortion of which are, of 

 course, synonyms), comprising perhaps 15 percent of the entire 

 number of generic and subgeneric names ever proposed for 

 mammals. 



Recent changes in the nomenclature of the Rodentia are well 

 exemplified in two important papers wdiich have appeared dur- 

 ing the past few months — one, by Mr. Oldfield Thomas, entitled 

 ' On the Genera of Rodents ' ; ' the other, by Dr. E. L. Troues- 

 sart, comprising part of the second edition of his ' Catalogus 

 Mammalium.' The former paper gives merely a list of the groups 

 of living rodents which the author considers worthy of generic 

 rank, together with references to the original description of each 

 genus. Trouessart's Catalogue, more ambitious in its scope, is 



iProc. Zool. Soc. London, 1896, pp. 1012-1028. 

 56-Bioi.. Soc. Wash., Vol. XI, 1897 • (241) 



