S2 BRACHYTELEUS 



M. E. Geoffrey St. Hilaire. From unwise exposure to light for over a 

 century it is now nearly white having lost practically all its coloring, 

 a little on sides of head and neck, and on hands and feet, being all that 

 remains of the hues formerly existing. Of course it no longer serves 

 for a description of the species, and I have availed myself for that pur- 

 pose of the numerous specimens in the British Museum. It is much 

 to be regretted that all the Mammalian types of the Primates in the 

 Paris Museum are deteriorating from the same cause, and in a 

 comparatively brief time will probably be useless for comparison or 

 description. Examples of this species have been described at various 

 times under different names as distinct from each other on account 

 of the presence of an undeveloped thumb, or sometimes merely a 

 tubercle, or its absence altogether. These, however, have no specific 

 value, and individuals have been found with the nailed thumb on one 

 hand and the tubercle on the other, or the tubercle has been present and 

 the thumb absent from the other hand. There seems to be no regu- 

 larity for the presence or absence of these members, but they merely 

 exhibit individual peculiarities. 



The type of Brachyteleus macrotarsus Spix is in the Munich 

 Museum. It is very much discolored with dust and greatly faded, but 

 there is no doubt that it is the same as Geoffrey's species, and 

 Spix's name must become a synonym. 



