136 Scientific Notices. 



varieties best accords with that description. Now in selecting the type 

 of the Linnean Lar, Mr. Vigors and Dr. Horsfield considered that the 

 black-handed species agreed, the more accurately of the two, with the 

 description of Linnaeus ; who, referring to the individual which was the 

 representative of his Homo Lar, makes no mention of the white hands, 

 and at the same time quotes the figure of Buffon, in which the white 

 hands are apparent, with a mark of doubt. Subsequent writers also to 

 Linneeus have taken the same view of the subject as Mr. Vigors and Dr. 

 Horsfield ; although others of equal authority have assumed a different 

 type. For M. Lesson's satisfaction, it will be sufficient to select from 

 among the former two names which he will not be backward in acknow- 

 ledging as of ample authority on such points. The first is that of M. 

 Cuvier, who having made the white-handed variety the type of the Lin- 

 nean Lar in the first edition of his " Regne Animal," gives in his 

 second and corrected edition the entirely black species as the type ; — the 

 second is that of M. Lesson himself, who in his " Manuel de Mammalo- 

 gie" expressly describes the Hylobates Lar2LS " entlerement noir." On 

 the whole, the writers in the Zoological Journal cannot but consider that, 

 as the first distinguishers of the two species, they possessed the privilege 

 of selecting the type ; and, that, in the exercise of this privilege they 

 added to it the weight of some authority. 



Trivial, however, is the end obtained in all such questions of nomen- 

 clature : — trivial, unless, as in the present instance, it affords an oppor- 

 tunity of performing an act of courtesy, or paying a tribute to well- 

 merited reputation. And it is with much gratification that Mr. Vigors 

 and Dr. Horsfield take advantage of the opportunity now placed within 

 their reach of according to the well-established merits of M. Geoffroy 

 St. Hilaire the privilege which is theirs only by the humble claim of 

 priority. Their feelings are indeed as much interested in this case, as their 

 sense of what is due to his distinguished character. In the name which that 

 gentleman has imposed upon one of the species, he has made an appeal 

 which cannot be resisted. And it is with no common satisfaction that 

 they yield their own names to those of M. Geofiroy St. Hilaire ; their 

 Hylobates albimana merging into his Hyl. Lar ; and their Lar into his 

 Hyl. Raffiesii. 



But what they thus willingly concede to the merits of this veteran in 



