38 INDEX GENERUM MAMMALIUM. 
workers. Special care has been taken to refer not only to the names 
which preoccupy mammal names, but also to designations which have 
been proposed to replace them. In marking names as preoccupied 
the author has not been governed by his personal views on the subject, 
but has endeavored rather to subordinate these to general utility. 
And before accepting the statement that a certain name is preoccupied, 
the reader is cautioned to consult such name and determine whether 
the statement coincides with his own views. 
NOMINA NUDA.^ 
Nomina nuda are generally regarded as having no standing in 
nomenclature, but it is not always easy to decide whether a name is a 
nomen nudum, except where it is published in a list. Ordinarily a 
genus is considered sufficiently characterized if its type species is men- 
tioned, but in case the name of this type itself happens to be a nomen 
nudum the generic name has no standing until the species has been 
properly described. | And if this generic name proves to be preoccupied 
and another one is substituted for it, the substituted name is also a 
nomen nudum unless accompanied by a diagnosis or based on a recog- 
nizable species. If the nomen nudum afterward becomes available 
through description, reference to that description accompanies the 
generic name in the index and the name itself dates from this later 
publication. Thus A/Anosczwrus Gray was published in 1843 with 
JH. tupaioides from Singapore as the type. The specific name, how- 
ever, was a nomen nudum and remained undefined until Blyth, in 
1855, described the species as Ae[Zurws] tupaioides from a specimen 
taken in Malacca.^ In 1867 Gray again published the genus,^ but the 
type having been described in 1855, the genus may be considered to 
date from that year instead of 1843, the time of first publication, or 
1867, the time of first publication after description of the type species. 
Some generic names which are practically nom/na nuda have doubtless 
been admitted on the basis of a brief description, but such cases can 
be detected only by specialists who by working over the groups are in 
a position to decide whether or not the characters assigned constitute 
arecognizable description. The modern almost universal practice of 
mentioning some species with the genus tends to reduce the number 
of such names. 
INDETERMINATE NAMES. 
Rarer even than nomina nuda, but still worthy of special mention, 
are a few cases in which generic names have been given to animals 
that never existed. Examples of these are SwEotyro of Kerr, based 


* See Miller, ‘The Treatment of Nomina Nuda,’ Auk, XIV, 427-430, Oct., 1897. 
^ Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, XXIV, p. 477, 1855. 
¢ Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 3d ser., X X, p. 286, 1867. 
