Nomenclature of the Flyiny- Lemurs. 25H 



botli erroneous, no member of the group occurring in either 

 place, so that their account might refer to either the Philippine 

 or Malayan forms. 



In Petiver's * Gazophylacii ' the locality is put as " Philippine 

 Islands," and in the Royal Society paper the province 

 Pampanga, in Southern Luzon, is specially mentioned. 



As a consequence the synonymy of the Luzon Colugo 

 would be : — 



Cynocephalus volans, L. 



Lemur volans, L. (as above). 



Cynocephalus volans, Bodd. Dierkundig Mengelweik, ii. p. 8, footnote / 

 (17G8). (So fav as the reference to Lemur volans is concerned.) 



Oaleopithecus volans, Pall. Act. Ac. Petrop. iv. p. 208 (1780). (Re- 

 ference to Lemur volatis, but not the specimens figured.) 



Galeopithecus phiHppinensis, Waterh. P. Z. S. 1838, p. 119. 



Galeopithecus {Colu//o) philijypinensis, Gray, Cat. Monk. &c. B.M. p. 98 

 (1870). 



Colugo phiHppinensis, Miller, I, c. 



In drawing up this synonymy I act on the assumption that 

 a generic name must be allocated in accordance with the 

 specific name mentioned by its author as his type, and that 

 if his specimens are wrongly determined, his genus will none 

 the less retain as its genotype the species to which that name 

 is originally and rightly applicable, unless he has guarded 

 himself by expressly stating the contrary *. 



This ruling, in extreme cases, may seem contrary to 

 common-sense, but the technical difficulties and confusion 

 resulting from an attempt to make the author's specimens 

 the primary basis for the allocation of his generic name are 

 so great that I am convinced that the plan followed above is 

 alone satisfactory f- 



* As Mr. Pocock has done in forming the genus Phormictopus (Ann. 

 & Mag. Nat. Hist. (7) viii. p. 546, 1901). 



t To those who do not admit the general rule here formulated, it may 

 be pointed out that, in this particular case, the question may be said fo 

 be determined by the title to Pallas's paper : " Galeopithecus . volans, 

 Camellii . descriplus," as it was " the Reverend and Learned Father 

 George Joseph Camel " who sent home from the Philippines the original 

 types of Petiver's description, itself in turn the basis of Linnaeus's Lemur 

 volans. 



Moreover, there is no hope of saving the time-honoured name of 

 Galei'jnthecus, which might have been a temptation to abandon the 

 .siiii]ili' rule of making generic names follow specific ones; for Cyno- 

 cepliains antedates Galeopithectis by many years, and has absolutely the 

 same basis, i. e. volans as type-species name, witli references to Pallas's 

 animal and that figured by Seba. 



'I'he only result therefore, in this case, of refusing adherence to the 

 uljove rule, would be the disaster of having the confusing name Cyno' 



