On the Bandicoots of Xuijls Arch'tpelago iSsc, 077 



Taking Nomeris first, as being the clearest case, I confess 

 I see no way of putting; it aside. Even its being a misprint 

 is purely an assumption, while the sentence in which it is 

 loundcd is pert'ectiy properly worded, with a genotype 

 {Phoarna melus, misprint for Ph. melas, a recognized synonym 

 of I*h. phocanoides) and a cou[)lo of words of diagnosis, so that 

 there can be no doubt whatever as to what animal it ap})lies to, 

 or as to the technical validity of its foundation. It should, 

 therefore, be recognised as a name having technical status, 

 and, being earlier than Neophoccena, would naturally invalidate 

 that. We may believe JS^omeris was a misprint, but there is 

 no evidence to that elt'ect, and, even if it had Ijeeu said to be so 

 by its author, that Would not remove its technical validity. 



15ut there is an earlier name, Meomen's. In Gray's 'List 

 of the Osteological Specimens in the Biiiish Museum,' 1847, 

 this name appears in the Systematic Index on p. xii, in 

 its proper place next to Phoccena, with the species-name y:>^c>c<:c- 

 noides, and there being only one phocanoides in the family 

 DelphinidiG, it is clear what is the genotype of Meomeris. In 

 the body of the work (p. 36) we have " The Finless Porpesse, 

 Meomeris phoccenoides" placed as the only species of the genus 

 JVeomeris. It may, therefore, l)e assumed that Meomeris is a 

 misprint for the earlier name Neomeris, but none the less it is 

 put in too valid a way to be ignored, having both type-species 

 and a descriptive Avord. I therefore maintain, on the lines 

 used in dealing with l)ri/onii/Sj that Meomeris should be con- 

 sidered as having full technical status, and that, instead of tiie 

 mucli later Neophoacna, it should be used for the Finless- 

 backed Por[)oisc, whose full name would thus be Mtomeris 

 phoccenoides. 



LXXXIV. — 17ie Bandicoots of Kill/ fs Archipelago, S. Aus- 

 tralia, and uf Cape York, N. Queensland. By Oldfield 



Thomas. 



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



Prof. F. Wood Jones, of Adelaide, has sent to the British 

 Museum two spirit-specimens and four picked-up skulls of 

 the Bandicoot which inhabits the Nuyts Archipelago, where 

 also he had previously obtained the interesting Murine 

 Leporillusjonesi, described by me last year. In sending theni, 

 he has drawn my attention to certain characters in which they 



