12 Bulletin American Museum 0/ Natural History [Vol. XLVII 



group. Neither is it indicated whether "4 dactylus" refers to the hind 

 feet or to the fore feet, or to all the feet. It happens, however, that only 

 one species of hedgehog had at that time been characterized as 4-dactylus 

 in the original description of the species. This was Erinaceus hetero- 

 dactylus Sundevall (1841, Sven. Vet. Akad. Handl. Stockholm, p. 227), 

 which is characterized as, among other distinctions, "Pedibus posticis 4 

 dactylis," which is doubtless the original source of Pomel's "4 dactylus." 

 At about the same date (1841) Wagner described Erinaceus albiventris 

 and E. pruneri on consecutive pages of the same work, without specify- 

 ing this character for either species. The first of these (E. albiventris) I 

 consider specifically unidentifiable, for reasons already given in the 

 present paper. This is the species now designated by Thomas as the 

 type of Atelerix. Wagner, two years later, in his 'Bericht liber die 

 Naturgeschichte der Saugthiere wahrend des Jahres 1842' (1843, Arch. 

 fur Naturg., Bd. 2, p. 27), claimed priority for his pruneri over hetero- 

 dactylus Sundevall, to which he referred the latter as a synonym. He 

 says he received a separate of Sundevall's paper from the editor of the 

 Archiv, and that the volume in which it was printed was issued later, but, 

 as he fails to state when Sundevall's paper was received, or what date it 

 bore, we are left in doubt as to which paper has priority of publication, 

 the date of his own publication being "15. Mai 1841." 



In his comment on Sundevall's paper he says that U E. heterodactylus 

 Sund. mit meinem E. Pruneri identisch ist; auch der hintere Daumen 

 geht diesem wie jenem ganz ab." He says further that he had assumed 

 the absence of the hallux in E. pruneri and E. albiventris to be the result 

 of an injury and for that reason did not mention it; but, inasmuch as 

 Sundevall had found the same suppression in his E. heterodactylus, he 

 now considered it an important character for his E. pruneri and E. 

 albiventris, to be included in the diagnosis. It is accordingly so included 

 in his later revision of the hedgehogs (1855, 'Schreber's Saugt.,' V, p. 587). 



The question of what name the genotype of Atelerix should bear is 

 thus somewhat complicated, depending upon priority of publication of 

 the names'E'. heterodactylus Sundevall, under which the expression "4 

 dactylus" (the sole diagnosis of Atelerix) was first employed for a hedge- 

 hog, and which was first recognized as a character of E. pruneri some 

 two years later. In any case, by the consensus of authorities both names 

 refer to the same species. Furthermore, Peroechinus Fitzinger (1866), 

 without diagnosis, included only E. pruneri (with E. heterodactylus 

 Sundevall as synonym), which is, therefore, the genotype of Peroechinus. 

 As Peroechinus is a substitute name for, or at all events a pure synonym 



