A LIST OF THE GENERA AND FAMILIES OF MAMMALS. 59 
on a mythical beast said to have been found in Java; amphractus of 
Illiger, based on Z7estudo squamata Bontius 1658, also accredited to 
Java but never identified with any animal, living or extinct; the equally 
unknown //ydropithecus Gloger 1841; and 2/inoceroides of. Feather- 
stonhaugh, based on a supposed fossil found in Somerset County, 
Pennsylvania, which proved to be only a fragment of rock. 
FRENCH AND COMMON NAMES. 
French names have given much trouble in preparing this index, 
owing to the fact that it has been a very common custom to quote them 
in Latin form, but with the date of their first publication as French 
words. Many of Cuvier’s genera were first proposed under French 
names, and these were not Latinized until some years later. Obviously 
such names have no more claim to recognition than English, German, 
Arabic, or barbarous common names. But their similarity of form 
to Latin names, and the almost universal practice of treating them as 
such, make it sometimes difficult to ascertain their real date; and it 
may happen that in a few instances changes are necessary because such 
words are antedated by valid generic names. In order to bring out 
this point more clearly, references are given in the index both to the 
first publication in French and the first publication in Latin form, but 
the name takes its date from the latter publication. In a few uncer- 
tain eases French names have been given the benefit of the doubt and 
treated as Latin words in order to avoid the chance of necessitating 
undue change through the rejection of names which should properly 
be accepted. 
The case of Priodon, a genus of edentates from Paraguay, is a good 
example of the uncertainty attached to names originally published in 
French form. odo» is usually quoted as Cuvier 1822, but seems 
to have appeared in that year only in the form * Priodonte.^ In 1827 
the name was used asa Latin word in the form /riodontes,’? but it 
does not seem to have been used in the form P/zodon until 1831.^ In 
1843 it was modified to Prionodon,“ a name which, however, had been 
proposed by Horsfield in 1824 for a genus of Viverride from Java. 
Recently Thomas, accepting the current date of Cuvier's Z/zodon, has 
adopted Linsang Müller 1839, instead of Przenodon Horstield,’ on the 
ground that the latter is preoccupied by /’r/odon Cuvier 1822, although, 
as shown, Cuvier’s genus does not seem to have been published in 
Latin form until 1827, three years after the publication of Prionodon 
Horsfield. 

a Hist. Nat. Mamm., IV, text with pl. (Encoubert), 1822. 
^ Lesson, Man. Mammalogie, p. 309, 1827. 
¢McMurtrie, Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, I, p. 164, 1831. 
4 Gray, List Spec. Mamm. Brit. Mus., p. xxvii, 1843. 
e Ann. Mus. Genova, 2d ser., X, p. 9, 1892. 
