On certain of the smaller S,- American Cervidse. 585 



LXXr. — On certain of the smaller S.-American CerviJa3. 

 By Oldfield Thomas. 



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



A. Brockets. (Genus Mazama.) 



Owing to their remarkable variability both in cranial and 

 external characters the Brockets oli the genus Mazama are 

 exceedingly difficult to work out systematically with any 

 exactness. Thus, while in most cases the widely spread 

 species Mazama americana {M. rufa auctorum) *, ranging 

 from Guiana to Paraguay and Rio Grande do Sul, has the 

 hairs of its nape reversed up the centre, two specimens in the 

 Museum have no trace of this arrangement, the hairs being 

 directed backwards as usual ; and one of these specimens was 

 obtained at the same time and place as examples of the 

 normal reversed type. And, again, of two specimens of 

 M. tenia from Guatemala, one has the nape-hairs reversed 

 and the other not. M. simplicicornis, the common small 

 species, with butiy underside, whose range is coextensive 

 with til at of M. americana, seems never to have any hairs 

 reversed on the nape. 



In the skull the obvious character as to the extension 

 upwards of the premaxillaj towards or to the nasals proves 

 also to be rather variable, examples from the same locality 

 having sometimes considerable differences in this respect. 

 Still at the same time there are certain average differences 



* When resuscitating the name americana from Erxleben's Moschus 

 americanus (Field Museum Nat. Hist. Publ. no. 155, vol. x. p. 43, 1912) 

 it is a pity that Mr. Osgood did not investigate for himself the question 

 as to which species it should be applied to, instead of acceptino the 

 synonymies of people who believed it to be a preoccupied name, and one 

 therefore requiring little attention. Instead of its applying to '^M. netnori- 

 vaffiM " (M. simplicieoi-nis), the smaller Brocket ot' Guiana, it clearly 

 belongs to the larger one, commonly known as M. rufa, and must I am 

 afraid, be used for it. 



On the other hand, while differing from Mr. Osgood as to the applica- 

 tion of this ffj»(';7Crt«?«, I cordially agree with him as to the want of 

 nomenclatural status in the case of the other americujxus on p. 312 of 

 Erxleben's work. There americanus was simply a word, not a name as 

 is shown, among other things, by its being italicized. In Erxlebeu none 

 of the technical names are italicized, while ordinary words on which he 

 wished to lay emphasis were {cf. " Magnitudocei-vi damfe," p. 313, "altera 

 .... altera,^' p. 370). As a consequence, the name of the common Noith- 

 American deer should be Odocoileus virginiaims, Bodd., not americanus 

 Erxl. ' 



