180 l\Ir. O. Thomas ou the 



u]i l)y Pr. Lyon *, ■wlio, for reasons in mIucU I concnr, con- 

 siders valid my selection in 1894 of ^^ Simla veter " as the 

 type of that name, and uho then qnotes my assertion that, 

 /S. veter being; indeterminable, the name Pithecus should 

 droj) — a conclusion wliich Dr. Lyon accepts. He would, 

 therefore, abolish the name Pithecvs, and {failing Simla, 

 ■which he does not mention) use the name Macaca for the 

 macaques. 



But, in doing this, we are always confronted with the risk 

 that, after zoologists liave got accustomed to the resulting 

 names, attempts will later on be made to identify Simla veter, 

 and thus embroil the whole question afresh. 



It appears to me, therefore, to be better to make this 

 attempt now, while usage is still in an unsettled condition, 

 and so, whatever conclusion may be come to, to introduce 

 a nomenclature which may have some chance of finality — a 

 desideratum which can never be attained while Pithecus, the 

 earliest of the names in question, is still "in the air." 



That Simla veter as a known definite species is indeter- 

 minable may be true, but, nevertheless, the consequence does 

 not follow that Pithecus as a generic name is untenable; 

 for if the species between which its identity lies are con- 

 generic, its validity is unaffected. A determinable genotype 

 is not a sine qua noti for the validity of a generic name, as is 

 evident from the number of recognized genera which have 

 been founded merely by diagnosis, -without mention of 

 genotypes. 



Lhider Simla veter Linnaeus f gives only two references — 

 to Brisson and Ray, — that of the former being, again, simply 

 a repi'oduction from the latter, whose account J is therefore 

 the essential basis of the name. 



Kay's monkey, the " Simla alba sen incanis pilis, barba 

 nigra promissa, ex Zeylona: elawandum Zeylanensibus,^' 

 is clearly the whitish monkey described by Kelaart § as 

 " Presbijtes alblnus" which Blanford considers to have been 

 either an albinistic form of Semnojnthecus cephalopttrus or 

 ursinus — these two species being certainly congeneric — or a 

 special white species nearly allied to them. It is to be noted 

 that Ray's native name of '' Elawandum '^ and locality of 

 Ceylon agree very well with Blanford's Semnopithecus 

 cejjhalopterus — " Kalli Wandcru (and Elli \yanderu ?),'' with 

 locality Ceylon. Kelaart also gives " Ellce Wanderoo'^ as 



* P. Biol. Soc. "Wash, xxviii. p. 179 (1915). 

 t Svst. Nat. (12) i. p. .36 (1766). 

 ■ X Quadr. p. 158 (179.3). 

 \ Prodr, Faun. Zevl. p. 7 (1852). 



^ 



