186 Mr. O. Thomas— Notes on Babirussa. 
is probably also more convenient to spell the vernacular name 
with a double s. 
The typical species Sus babyrussa, Linn., was largely based 
on two figures of skulls, one by Grew and the other by Seba, 
so that the skulls depicted would have been co-types of the 
species. Of these two skulls, one—that figured by Seba—is 
still in existence (B.M. no. 67. 4. 12. 223), and may with 
propriety be formally selected as a lectotype. It was stated 
by Seba to have come from Buru, an assertion quite borne 
out by its characters. 
The differences between the Buru and Celebes forms have 
been well pointed out by Deninger *, who shows how, by the 
more inward-pointing direction of the upper canines in the 
Babirussa of Celebes the nasals are pinched in mesially and 
other characteristics are produced by which that animal can 
generally be distinguished. ‘lhe canines themselves are very 
much finer, and I may further note that well-marked basial 
pits appear always to be present in this species, while the 
bullze in section are of the narrow-oval shape found in the 
Tali Aboe skulls. 
Deninger named the Celebean form celebensis, although 
stating that the description by Lesson of #&. alfurus applied 
to that animal, and not to the Buru one. With some hesita- 
tion I am prepared to accept bis view that none the less 
alfurus should be considered a synonym of babyrussa, on thie 
ground that Lesson was distinctly giving a new specific name 
—as was necessary under the code of that day—to Sus baby- 
yussd, Whose specific name he was using as a generic one. 
Lesson’s book contained descriptions of all mammals known 
to him, and the accident that his description of some Babi- 
russas seen in Java is thought by Deninger to apply best to 
celebensis does not, I think, alter the fact that Lesson was 
distinctly renaming Linné’s Sus babyrussa, of which, there- 
fore, alfurus would be a synonym. 
Now, with regard to the Tali Aboe Babirussas, I find that, 
so far as the canines and nasals are concerned, they are 
emphatically of the Buru or B. babyrussa type, without any 
tendency towards the characteristics of the Celebes DB. ecle- 
bensis. 
But there are certain differences which, being found in so 
fine a series as eleven ‘l’ali Aboe skulls, as compared with the 
actual type of B. babyrussa, appear to indicate that they 
should be subspecifically separated from the latter. I would 
suggest for the animal, in honour of the naturalist to whom 
we owe its discovery, the name of 
* Ber. Nat. Ges. Freiburg, xviii. p. 1 (1911). 
