172 SI MI A 



GENUS SIMIA. THE BAKBARY APE. 



■l- 2— 2> *-'• 1—1 5 "• 2^21 ^- 3—3 3^* 



SIMIA Linn., Syst. Nat., I, 1758, p. 25. Type Simla sylvanus Linnaeus. 

 Inuus E. Geoff., Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, XIX, 1812, p. 100. 

 Sylvanus Oken, Lehrb. Naturg., 3ter Theil, Zool., 2te Abth., 1816, 



p. 1223, (nee Latreille, 1807, Coleopt.). 

 Sylvanus Virey, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., 2nd ed., XXXI, 1819, 



p. 275. 

 Pithes ( ?) Burnett, Quart. Journ. Scien. Lit. and Art, XXVI, 



1828, p. 307. 



Head oblong; face elongate, hairy; hair on head short; tail absent 

 externally. 



The genus Simia until a few years ago, has, since the time of 

 Linnaeus its proposer, been associated with the Ourang, and this too, in 

 spite of the fact that Linnaeus' Simia satyriis of the 10th edition of his 

 Systema Naturae, was a Chimpanzee, and not an Ourang. This was at 

 length discovered by the Hon. Walter Rothschild, and published in a 

 paper on the great Apes in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society 

 of London in 1904. 



But the Author of this paper in his selection of the type of Simia 

 committed the error of choosing the S. satyrus Linn., instead of the 

 next species, 5". sylvanus the Barbary Ape, and this fact has been 

 pointed out by Mr. Thomas in his paper on Linnaean types published in 

 the same Journal for 1911. 



The case is as follows : In many instances Linnaeus when choos- 

 ing a generic name selected for his term a specific name employed by 

 some earlier writer, and this species, if determinable, would, in the 

 majority of cases, become the type of the genus. Regarding this fact 

 there would seem to be little or ng divergence of opinion among 

 Zoologists. Linnaeus in the present instance selected Simia, (which 

 he made to include all Primates), from the "de Simia" of Gesner, 

 (Med. Tigur. Hist. Animal, 1551-58), which is the Barbary Ape, and 

 this is the proper type for Simia, thus transferring the term from the 

 great Apes to one similar to the Macaques. This procedure may be 

 regretted by Mammalogists generally, for Simia has always been con- 



