1908.] Allen, Mammalogical Notes. 583 



Catesby and Edwards. Previous to 1908, the type of Sciuropterus had 

 repeatedly been given as Sciurus volans Linn. (Allen, N. Am. Rodentia, 

 1877, p. 653; Palmer, Index Gen. Mamm., 1904, p. 625), which was also 

 the only species mentioned where the Latin form of the name was first used. 

 If we go back, however, to the original institution of the genus it- is evident 

 that only the assapan (Mus volans Linn.) was considered. In dividing the 

 genus Sciuropterus into subgenera this fact might well have been recognized, 

 and Mus volans Linn, taken as the type, leaving Sciurus volans Linn, part 

 (= Pteromys russicus Tiedemann) as the type of the pala?arctic section of 

 the genus. Under all of the circumstances, however, it may possibly be 

 conceded that it was within the rights of the first reviser (in this case Mr. 

 Thomas) to select Mus volans Linn, as the type of his new subgenus 

 Glaucomys, and Pteromys russicus Tiedemann as the type of Sciuropterus, 

 although it would have better expressed the historical facts in the case if 

 this designation of types for the two groups by the first reviser had been 

 reversed. 



In determining the type of a genus where a previously designated type 

 is a composite species, it is proper, not to say important, to ascertain which 

 element of the composite was employed by the founder as the principal or 

 sole basis, as the case may be, of his genus. 



IV. NOTE ON THE TYPE LOCALITY OF RANGIFER ARCTICA (RICHARDSON). 



Richardson gave no definite type locality for his "Cervus tarandus, var. 

 arctica," but in his 'Introduction' to the 'Fauna Boreali- Americana ' (I, p. 

 xxv), where the name is first used, he included it in his list of "quadrupeds 

 known to inhabit the Barren-grounds." The region mentioned by him 

 as the Barren-grounds is defined (/. c., p. xxiii) as " bounded to the westward 

 by the Coppermine River, Great Slave, Athapescow, Wollaston, and Deer 

 Lakes, to the southward by the Churchill or Missinippi River, and to the 

 northward and eastward by the sea/' This region is joined on the westward 

 and southward by his "Eastern district,"to which he assigns his Cervus 

 tarandus, var. sylvestris. 



His personal acquaintance with the Barren-ground Caribou (his var. 

 arctica) appears to have been made first, and mainly, in the Coppermine 

 River country, during his journey down to the Coppermine, along the coast 

 of Coronation Gulf, and on the return trip across country to Fort Enterprise, 

 considerably south of the southern boundary of the Barren-grounds. He 

 says (I. c., p. 250) of the Woodland Caribou (his var. sylvestris), "of this 



