THECHNICAL NAMES OF BRITISH MAMMALS. 99 
‘my belief in the advisability of adopting the so-called “ Scomber- 
scomber principle” on the score of its logicalness, simplicity, and 
exactness, the readiness with which the proper name of any 
Species may be found under its guidance, and the exact indication 
it gives as to which is the type-species of a given genus. It un- 
fortunately gives rise to some ugly compounds, although Glis glis 
or Myotis myotis are not so bad; but esthetic considerations, 
full as they are of the personal equation, can hardly be allowed 
to have a preponderating influence in so prosaic a subject as 
nomenclature. Moreover, it so happens that of the animals to 
which Scomber-scomber names apply, several of the best known 
would still have strange and unfamiliar terms belonging to 
them even if the principle were rejected. Thus we should 
have Meles europeus, not M. taxus (which was based on the 
American Badger), and Vulpes alopex, not V. vulgaris; while 
the problem of what the name of the Polecat should be, if © 
not Putorius putorius, is one which I have as yet quite failed 
to solve. There would therefore be no gain in the abolition 
of this much-abused principle so far as familiarity with the 
resulting names is concerned. In his editorial introduction to 
Lydekker’s ‘British Mammals,’ Dr. Bowdler Sharpe has also 
advocated the same principle. 
In the following list the Cetaceans are omitted, for, while 
there is probably but little wrong with their nomenclature, I have 
not worked at them sufficiently to care to be responsible for their 
names. It may, however, be noted that two of them—Orca orca, 
the Killer, and Phocena phocena, the Porpoise—take Scomber- 
scomber names; while it is evident that on a principle about 
preoccupied names nearly universally accepted, the Lesser 
Rorqual cannot bear a name based on ‘ Balena rostrata,” 
Fabricius, 1780, when there was already a Balena rostrata, 
Miller, 1776 (now Hyperoodon rostratus), in existence. Its name 
should apparently be Balenoptera acuto-rostrata, Lacépéde. 
Finally, the Pilot Whale, whose generic name was originally 
formed in the feminine gender, should be called Globicephala 
melena instead of Globicephalus melas, the universal rule being 
to alter the gender of the specific name to suit the generic, and 
not vice versa. 
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