ALLEN : MAMMALIA : CERVID^. I I 



cient detail for their easy recognition, and others more vaguely, so that 

 their identification is more difficult. Among the latter is the "Guemul," 

 or "Huemul," which he named technically Equus bisulcus. He certainly 

 could not have been familiar with the animal, and probably described it 

 from hearsay information, comparing it with the horse and ass, and in no 

 way making any suggestion of its relation to the deer tribe. In fact he 

 gives no character that is in any way distinctive of the animal. Yet, 

 apparently mainly on the basis of its vernacular name, the animal is now 

 universally conceded to be the species first properly introduced into scien- 

 tific literature by Gay and Gervais in 1846 under the name Cermis chilensis, 

 which they recognized as "le Guamul des Chiliens," and also as the Equus 

 bisulcus of Molina. In the meantime Molina's animal had been intro- 

 duced into the works of the earlier systematists as a species of Equus, and 

 as late as 1827 was recorded as a species of Auchenia on the basis of 

 Molina's account. In 1803 it became the subject of a Latin dissertation 

 by Leuckart, who made it the basis of his genus Hippocanielus, substi- 

 tuting at the same time the specific name dubius [Hippocamelus dubtus) 

 for Molina's name bisulcus. 



Mr. Lydekker, in his "Deer of All Lands," has adopted, as have Dr. 

 Matschie and others, the name bisulcus Molina for the species, but he 

 rejects Hippocamelus, as also the later Cervequus Lesson, "on account of 

 their inappropriate nature," for the later Xenelaphus Gray. This state- 

 ment amounts to the concession that the " inappropriateness" of the name 

 Hippocamelus is the only objection to its adoption, which is without weight 

 under the rule that names are not to be rejected "because of barbarous 

 origin, for faulty construction, for inapplicability of meaning, or for erro- 

 neous construction" (A. O. U. Code, Canon XXXI). It must therefore 

 be adopted for the Guamul group of deer, as stated by Mr. Thomas in 

 1898 and by Dr. T. S. Palmer in 1899. 



Hippocamelus bisulcus (Molina). 



(Plates IV. V,and VI, Skull.) 



Equus bistilcus Molina, Sagg. Stor. Nat. Chile, 1782, 320. — Gmelin, Syst. 



Nat, I, 1788, 209 (ex Molina). — Fischer, Syn. Mam., 1829, 433 (ex 



Molina). 

 Cervus bisulcus Matschie, Ergeb. Hamb. Magalh. Sammelreise, III, 1898, 



19. Reinstates Molina's name bisulcus. 



