THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 768.— June. 1905. 



THE TRUE POSITION OF MUS RATTUS AND 

 ITS BRITISH ALLIES. 



By J. G. Millais. 



(Plate IV.) 



Owing to the general confusion which has long existed in 

 zoological nomenclature, the necessity for adopting some fixed 

 rule for future guidance has gradually been forced upon us, 

 and now I think that by far the greater majority of working 

 naturalists are agreed that we must follow the law of priority. 

 Whether a species is well or badly named it is best to adopt 

 such a system for the purpose of eventual uniformity, and, 

 though it is easy to find faults — and there are many glaring 

 ones in this method — the general acclamation of the method 

 would more than counterbalance its evident weaknesses in minor 

 details. A recent report (1905) of a Committee appointed by 

 the Zoological Congress (1895) to enquire into the desirability of 

 its adoption unanimously voted in his favour, and all zoologists 

 who wish to be in accord with their fellow-workers will do well 

 to accept this dictum. 



Of course there are dissentients — there always will be to 

 every innovation. They will point to the case of the South 

 African Eland of the Kalahari, a stripeless animal, which is 

 evidently a local race, that by living under different surroundings 

 has lost the stripes that belong to the parent forms of the 

 Zool. 4th ser. vol. IX., June, 1905. r 



