174 MR. R. I. POCOCK ON A HAIXAX GIBBON. [May 16, 



The Name of the Siyecies. 



The coi'rect name for this species is still iiiisettled. The 

 specimen now living in the Gardens is specifically identical with 

 the type of H. hainaniis 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 t, however, hainanas is a synonym of coitcolor Harlan %. 

 This opinion was based apparently upon the similarity in colour 

 between the types of concolor and hainanus ; but it unfortunately 

 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, is smooth, depressed, relatively 

 coarse, and quite u.nlike the hair of a young specimen of //. lar 

 from Pahang, now in the Gardens, which is essentially rough and 

 Avoolly ; 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, 

 imlawfully proposed by Lesson || as a substitute for concolor Harl., 

 ;illeging that concolor was first applied by Harlan in 1825 to a 

 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 

 I have failed to find it in the Royal Society's Catalogue, and 

 there is no sviggestion 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 j^reviously 

 published, I mtist 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. S. 1840, 

 p. 20) was definitely stated to have come from Borneo and to have 

 had thick woolly fi-izzled hair, and since it is only known to have 

 i-esembled the type of hainanus in the matter of coloi'ation, an 

 admittedly variable feature in the genus and one in which it also 

 resembles H. syndactylus*^, it is, in my opinion, premature to state 

 without qualification that hainanus is a synonym of concolor. 



* Sclater, P. Z. S. 1892, p. 541. 



t SB. Ges. nat. Fremide Berlin, 1893, p. 211. 



t Jr. Acad. Sci. Philad. v. pt. 2, p. 231 (1827). 



§ Cat. Mamm. Suppl. 1904, p. 6. 



II Bull. Sci. Nat. xiii. p. Ill (1827). 



•[ Since Harlan states (Joe. cit. p. 231) that concolor differs fi-om H. syndactylus 

 and other species in heing of a universal black colour, it is assumable that he did not 

 knoAV S. syndactyli{,s. I do not, however, suggest that concolor is a sj'nonym of 

 syndactylus, because Harlan states that his specimen had no guttural sacs. 



