Notes afid Cojuments. 



295 



and it was first announced to the Linnean Society fifty years 

 ago. Darwin had written an outHne of his view, and submitted 

 it to some friends, but he refrained from going further, as being 

 at the time not ready to put it before the Society. Dr. Wallace 

 wrote to Darwin on the subject without having heard of the 

 Darwin movement, and his letter came upon the latter as a 

 thunderbolt. In the end, two papers on the subject were read 

 before the Society. These being the facts it could not be said 

 that he had given the idea to Darwin. 



NEW NAMES FOR OLD ANIMALS. 



We can sympathise with Mr. R. Lydekker, who makes the 

 following observations in ' Knowledge ' for July :— ' For many 

 years three well-known British bats, the pipistrelle, the great 

 bat, and Leisler's bat, were almost universally designated 

 respectively, Vesperugo pippistrellus, V. noctula, and V. leiseri' 

 Some years ago we were, however, told that the name Ves- 

 perugo must give way to Pipistrellus, when the three species 

 became respectively, Pipistrellus pipistrellus (according to the 

 purists) P. noctula and P. leisleri. The next change was to 

 remove the two latter species from Pipistrellus, which involved 

 a further change of name to Pterygistes noctula and Pt. leisleri. 

 Just as we are getting used to these names we are informed 

 that the name Pterygistes is antedated by Nyctalus, and they 

 are accordingly once more changed to Nyctalus noctula and 

 A^. leisleri. Something of the same kind has happened in the 

 case of the long-tailed field-mouse, which, after being known 

 for years as Mus sylvestris, was some time ago generically separ- 

 ated from the more typical mice as Micromys sylvaticus. After 

 enjoying this title for a season, we are told again on the grounds 

 of priority, that it must be known (till next time) as Apodemus 

 sylvestris.' 



PRIORITY V. USE. 



' That there will be a reaction against this constant 

 changing (which involves a terrible and altogether unnecessary 

 strain on the memory), I myself am fully convinced, and, 

 perhaps, the best hope for the speedy appearance of this 

 reaction is to be found in the ceaseless changes now proposed 

 in nomenclature. When a really strong systematic naturalist 

 makes his appearance, he will, I have little doubt, make short 

 work of the innovations. Personally, I intend for the future 

 to adopt few, if any, of them, and regret that I have accepted 

 such changes in the past. Names that have been generally 



1908 August I, 



