ORDER RUMINANTIA. 167 



The Dicranocerine Group*. 



Mr. Ord published an account of the first, and, perhaps, 

 only species of this group, in the Journal de Physique, 

 1818 ; after M. de Blainville had noticed, in a very im- 

 perfect manner, a pair of horns which are in the Royal 

 College of Surgeons, in London, under the erroneous name 

 of Cervus Hamatus. Next appeared an article in vol. xiii. 

 of the Linn&an Transactions, where five species of America 

 are introduced, and described as allied to the genus Anti- 

 lope. Mr. Ord very properly regarded the animal he de- 

 scribed as an intermediate species, and upon this opinion 

 formed his genus Antilocapra, sl denomination which we 

 would adopt but for the consideration stated below f. In 



* Amgoivov, furca, xepa?, cornu. 



t Dr. Harlan, in the Fauna Americana, professes himself igno- 

 rant why the author of the paper in vol. xiii. of the Linncean Trans- 

 actions on animals of America allied to the genus Antilope, did 

 not adopt Mr. Ord's specific name of Americana for the animal in 

 question, his description having the right of priority. Injustice 

 to both these gentlemen it may be proper to observe, that Mr. Ord 

 may himself recollect the author's statement in 1817, of his inten- 

 tion to publish his drawing and notes of this animal before he, 

 Mr. Ord, had laid his before the public. Accordingly the mate- 

 rials were prepared for the purpose, but delayed by a protracted 

 course of travelling, and still more by remaining about two years 

 at the Linneean Society. Hence Mr. Ord's and M. de Blainville's 

 were unknown, if not posterior to his own original paper: but if 

 the author had known of their existence, he is still free to confess 

 that he would not have adopted the proposed nomenclature, be- 

 cause, philologicaily considered, the compound word Antilocapra 

 offers a vicious structure, being composed of two different lan- 

 guages, and the first part not even classical Greek. Now in tech- 

 nical terminology we have the authority of Fabricius to reject them. 

 Nomina Hybrida nullomodo toleranda. Next, if the names of ge- 

 nera and species are intended to convey some notion of the form 

 and characters of the subject they intend to designate, the compound 

 Antilocapra, would express an intermediate between Antelope and 



