8 Mammals of Eastern Asia 
Spotted Cat, and a Civet Cat, we indicate widely diverse ani- 
mals; the first is a member of the Cat family, but the second 
and third are animals related respectively to the Kangaroo and 
the Civet. This sort of misnaming took place in the early days 
of exploration, when travelers saw animals that reminded them 
slightly of familiar kinds at home and often invented unsuitable 
names for them. The Cat Bear is not a Bear ; the Mouse Deer is 
not a Deer ; the Tree-shrew is not a Shrew. Native names like 
Binturong, Pangolin, and Mongoose, which locally signify 
rather distinct types of mammals, are fairly satisfactory but still 
lack precision. 
To provide a more exact terminology, the biologist Linnaeus 
in 1758 invented a system of paired Latin or Greek names for 
all animals and plants. Each species of animal received two 
names — a first name, written with a capital letter, indicating the 
genus or general group to which the animal belonged, and a 
second name, written without a capital, showing the species or 
exact kind of animal. The generic name Cams includes both the 
Dogs and the Wolves, but Canis familiaris is the Linnsean name 
for the Dog alone, while Canis lupus applies only to the 
Wolf. 
Much later, when Wolves from widely separated geographi- 
cal regions were found to differ by minute but recognizable 
characters, a third name was added to so indicate. The typical 
European Wolf becomes Canis lupus lupus; the Chinese Wolf 
becomes Canis lupus chanco. In the text of this book the fre- 
quent use of the expressions "subspecies," "forms," and "races" 
(identical for present purposes) will be found invariably to 
refer to the last name of such a group of three. Unfortunately, 
many technical names are long and hard to pronounce, but apart 
from that handicap they serve to indicate thousands of kinds of 
animals with great accuracy. Many subspecies may go to make 
a species, many species a genus. On the other hand, an animal 
may be unique. Such a one is the Giant Panda, Ailuropoda 
