Generic Names of certain Old-World Monkeys. 179 



prevalent whiteness of the tail, the effect of which must be to 

 render the animal comparatively visible, especially at night. 

 In view of the existence in all mongooses of an anal sack 

 and foul-smelling secretion of the anal glands, coupled with 

 the known power in the case of Mangos urva* of ejecting 

 this secretion to a distance, as in the skunk, I suggest that 

 the whiteness of the tail may be a warning attribute ; and 

 since Ichneitmia geographically overlaps Bdeogale to the 

 north and Paracymctis to the south, the likeness between 

 the three may, perhaps, be Miillerian. 



Note on Galeriscus. 



Ill 1894 M'. F. J. Jackson sent to the British Museum 

 the skin, without the skull, of a Carnivore from Mianzini, in 

 in Masailand. This was described by Mr. Thomas f as a 

 new genus and species, Galeriscus jacksoni, which was 

 assigned to the Mustelidee, and compared more particularly 

 with the South-American genus Galictis, now known as 

 Grison. Mr. Thomas subsequently came to the conclusion 

 that the specimen must be referred to Bdeogale — a view 

 luUy confirmed by tiie structure of the ear, which is like that 

 of Mungos rather than of Grison. Since I am not aware 

 that this correction has ever been published, I take this 

 occasion to point out tliat Galeriscus falls as a synonym 

 of Bdeogale, 



XV. — On the Generic Names of certain Old-World Monkeys. 

 By Oldfield Thomas. 



(Published by permission of the Trustees of the British INIuseuui.) 



The generic names used for some of the Old-World monkeys 

 have of late years been in a state of continual incertitude, 

 so that for the langurs Presbytis, Pygathri.v, and Semno- 

 pithecus have been used by different authors for different 

 reasons, for the macaques Simla, Pithecus, and Macacus, 

 and for the guenons Cercopithecus and Lasiopyga — not to 

 mention the use of such little-known' names as Pan and 

 Pongo for the chimpanzees and orangs. 



The question of Pithecus has recently been again brought 



* Ann. & Ma^. Nat. Hist. (8) viii. p. 756 (1911). 

 t Ihicl (6) xiii. p. 522 (1894). 



