1897. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 367 



temporary, The Zoologist, also says in reference to our articles : " This 

 investigation has already been commenced in America, Bohemia, 

 Germany, and Russia, and it is quite time England joined that scientific 

 concert." We shall be glad to receive the names (not necessarily 

 for publication) of those who are anxious to support the proposal, 

 so that more active measures may be devised. Communications 

 should be addressed to the Editor, at 67 St. James's Street, S.W. 



The Classification of Rodents. 



We have received from Mr. Oldfield Thomas a list of " The 

 Genera of Rodents : an attempt to bring up to date the Current 

 Arrangement of the Order " {Proc. Zool. Soc. for 1896, pp. 1012-1028). 

 Unpretending though this list be, it deserves more than a simple 

 mention. In the introduction the author states that he has prepared 

 his paper to help such persons as museum-curators and writers either 

 of a text-book or of a faunistic work. And again : " the special 

 object of the list is the proper allocation of the genera in their 

 respective subfamilies, and I have purposely been as conservative as 

 possible with regard to the groups of higher rank, following Alston 

 wherever there has not been very special reason for departing from 

 his arrangement." 



We therefore take the paper for what it is intended to be, and 

 limit our remarks on the " groups of higher rank " chiefly to the 

 innovations proposed. And here, frankly, we do not like the " Anoma- 

 luri " and "Aplodontiae " as they stand in the list. Mr. Thomas does 

 not think it at present advisable to consider these groups "as of the 

 same rank as the Sciuromorpha and the others ;" but in reality they 

 figure in the list as though they had the same rank. Thus, the gap 

 between them and the Sciuromorpha, etc., contrary to what ought to 

 be the aim of classification, is made wider than in the " current " 

 arrangements ; whereas Winge, to whose classification the author 

 objects, has endeavoured to bridge over many of these gaps, in a 

 work whose chief demerit is the fact that it is written in Danish. 



W^ith all due respect for the authority of Mr. Thomas, we 

 further think, on the same grounds, that the reasons given for the 

 maintenance of the " Sciuromorpha " and the other " morpha," 

 namely, that they are " time-honoured " and " convenient," are not 

 free from objection. From the beginning, when the " morpha " were 

 not yet time-honoured, the " awkward " families have objected to the 

 Procrustean beds in which they were being forced, and it was to be 

 foreseen that, when the mists by which they were surrounded should 

 be somewhat dispelled, these very stumbling-blocks, together with 

 extinct forms, would furnish the clue for a more natural classification. 



To turn to the arrangement of the groups. When we see the 

 Anomaluri at the top of the list and the Lagomorpha at the bottom, 

 we should like to have been told whether, in the author's opinion. 



