SOUTH DAKOTA SCHOOL OF MINES 73 



dog is Canis familiaris Linnaeus, Canis being the name of 

 the genus and familiaris the name of the species. The third 

 non-italicized portion may be considered a part of the name 

 although this really refers only to the naturalist who first 

 carefully described and properly named the creature. It is 

 often omitted, especially in the case of fairly common or 

 well known animals or where there is no mistaking the in- 

 dividual who gave the name. In scientific literature, how- 

 ever, and particularly in paleontology where, on account of 

 imperfect material, there is liability of error in determina- 

 tion this is usually given as it not infrequently becomes 

 essential for clearness in referring to the species. Omitting 

 it from the name for the time being, the complete classifica- 

 tion of the dog may be represented as follows: 



Kingdom, Animalia. 



Sub-kingdom, Vertebrata. 

 Class, Mammalia. 



Sub-class, Eutheria. 



Infra-class, Monodelphia. 

 Cohort, Unguiculata. 

 Order, Carnivora. 



Sub-order, Fissipedia. 

 Family, Canidae. 

 Genus, Canis. 



Species, Familiaris. 

 Variety, "Shepherd." 

 Individual, "Shep." 



Continuing the illustration the scientific name of the 

 tiger is Felis tigris Linnaeus ; of the ox, Bos taurus Linnaeus ; 

 of man, Homo sapiens Linnaeus. These names are simple 

 enough when once understood and indeed many names we 

 now look upon as common have been transferred bodily 

 from the scientific generic nomenclature, as for example, 

 rhinoceros, hippopotamus, bison, and mastodon. 



It is well known that the common names by which ani- 

 mals now living are designated are often not sufficiently 

 accurate. The name in order to be properly useful must be 

 sufficiently distinctive to indicate clearly the animal to which 

 reference is made. For example, there are five existing 

 species of rhinoceroses, the clear definition of which by com- 

 mon names is perhaps difficult enough, to say nothing of the 



