IN the year 1869 A. Milne Edwards received a letter*) from the traveller Pére 

 A. David, dealing with several new mammals collected by him in the Eastern 

 Thibet, and among these was a kind of bear found in the province Moupin which 

 he named Ursus melanoleucus and of the exterior of which he gave a short de- 

 scription. He added: 



' Je n'ai point observé dans les cabinets d'Europe cette espéce qui est bien la 

 j>liis jolle du genre que je connaisse ; puisse-t-elle constituer une nouveauté pour la 

 science I" 



This \\ish was sufficiently fulfilled ; the zoologists have played at battle-door 

 and shuttle-cock with the animal, from the Ursidæ to the Procyonidæ and back 

 again. 



In March of the following year Milne Edwards shortly wrote about it'): 

 " .. Par sa forme extérieure, il ressemble en efTet beaucoup å un Ours, mais les 

 raractores ostéologiques et le systéme dentaire l'en distinguent nettement et le rap- 

 prorhont des Pandas et des Ratons. Il doit constituer un genre nouveau que j'ai 

 appel«; AUaropoday 



But this name being preoccupied in another sense, P. Gervais') after exami- 

 ning a plaster cast of its cranial cavity named it Pandarctos, considering it as an 

 aberrant Ursid with some Panda-like features. 



At the same time A. Milne Edwards altered the name to Ailuropus which is 

 used by A. David in his "Rapport"*) 1871 (15, December) where he writes: "M. 

 A. Milii. Iviwards a créé pour lul le genre Ailuropus.'' He also resumes the 

 words of Milm lvl\v,ir<ls about its systematic relation rii.'.l ;il.(i\.'. 



T' ' ( il< I iil.il ilts( ription of its exterior, its skul! and its teeth was given 



I-- \r. Iiiv^ .i. I Mii-.-uin t. V, ISHO, BuU. pag. 13. 



') A. MiliH- lvi\v.tr<l- -III ijihiiiii.-. \i. UH iinfrres du Thibet oriental Xmulea de« Sden<Htt 

 nalurell«"«. I "in-' XIII, -.nc o, lh7i».; 



) I'. (Mi\.ii^ Mrfiiiiire sur les forroes cérébrales des Carnivores (NouveUes Archives du 



■i raasemhlée <!•> MM les profeneura-administraieurs du Mus. 

 irilLst. u.ii. iNoiis. \:.h lu Mu»., Tome \M Iiulltm, i'-Ti Pp. 88 and 92.) 



I* 



