174 MR. R. I. POCOCK ON A HAINAN GIBBON. [May 16, 
The Name of the Species. 
The correct name for this species is still unsettled. The 
specimen now living in the Gardens is specifically identical with 
the type of H. hainanus Thos., and with the specimen previously 
exhibited in the Menagerie * and now in the British Museum, 
with both of which I have compared it. According to 
Matschie 7, however, hainanws 1s a synonym of concolor Harlan =. 
This opinion was based apparently upon the similarity in colour 
between the types of concolor and hainanus ; but it untortunately 
involves the assumption that the locality given for concolor, 
namely Borneo, is erroneous. It is also objectionable on the 
grounds that the hair of concolor was described as “thick, 
woolly, and frizzled.” The last two epithets are in no sense 
applicable to the hair of either of the three specimens of hainanus, 
comprising young and adult animals, available for examination. 
In these the hair, although thick, 1s smooth, depressed, relatively 
coarse, and quite unlike the hair of a young specimen of //. lar 
from Pahang, now in the Gardens, which is essentially rough and 
woolly ; and also equally unlike that of examples of H. agilis in 
the British Museum, which is beautifully silky and woolly. 
Furthermore, Trouessart § adopts for the species the name harlani, 
unlawfully proposed by Lesson || as a substitute for concolor Harl., 
alleging that concolor was first applied by Harlan in 1825 toa 
young specimen of H. (Symphalangus) syndactylus. _Concolor, 
therefore, falls as a synonym of syndactylus, and harlani comes 
in for the species described by Harlan in 1827, which Trouessart 
follows Matschie in identifying with hainanus. Trouessart, 
however, gives no reference to Harlan’s paper of 1825, and since 
T have failed to find it in the Royal Society’s Catalogue, and 
there is no suggestion in Harlan’s paper of 1827 (contained in 
a volume dated 1825), or in Lesson’s almost contemporaneous 
criticism of it, that the name concolor had been previously 
published, I must conclude that Trouessart has fallen into some 
error.. But in any case, since the specimen described by Harlan 
in 1827 as concolor and renamed harlani by Lesson in the same 
year and erroneously quoted as niger by Ogilby (P. Z. 8. 1840, 
p. 20) was definitely stated to have come from Borneo and to have 
had thick woolly frizzled hair, and since it 1s only known to have 
resembled the type of hatnanus in the matter of coloration, an 
admittedly variable feature in the genus and one in which it also 
resembles H. syndactylus 4, it 1s, in my opinion, premature to state 
without qualification that hainanus is a synonym of concolor. 
* Sclater, P. Z. S. 1892, p. 541. 
+ SB. Ges. nat. Freunde Berlin, 1893, p. 211. 
t+ Jr. Acad. Sci. Philad. v. pt. 2, p. 231 (1827). 
Cat. Mamm. Suppl. 1904, p. 6. 
|| Bull. Sei. Nat. xiii. p. 111 (1827). 
€ Since Harlan states (loc. cit. p. 231) that concolor differs from HA. syndactylus 
and other species in being of a universal black colour, it is assumable that he did not 
know H. syndactylus. I do not, however, suggest that concolor is a synonym of 
syndactylus, because Harlan states that his specimen had no guttural sacs. 
Or 
