96 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
and while I have no positive proof that they prey on adult birds in a wild state, 
I have my suspicions; perhaps others have more conclusive evidence. 
My friend, Mr. L. L. Pray, tells me that four flying squirrels in his possession 
ate prodigious quantities of ‘‘pinch bugs,” and other beetles, as much as a pint 
a meal. The wings and legs were cut off, and the bodies eaten. They also dis- 
played a fondness for ravv^ meat, as do the equally mild appearing white footed 
mice. 
— H. L. Stoddard. 
N. W. Harris Public School Extension of Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois. 
THE TECHNICAL NAMES OF TWO COLOBUS MONKEYS 
Pennant, in his ‘History of Quadrupeds’ published in 1781, described two 
species of four-fingered African monkeys, based on specimens in the Leverian 
Museum, “brought over by Mr. Smeathman” from “Sierre Leone.” The first 
of these he described' and figured (1. c., p. 197, no. 110, pi. xxiv), as the “Full- 
bottom Monkey,” in allusion to the “long, coarse, flowing hairs” of the head 
and shoulders, “like a full-bottomed periwig.” His plate was poorly copied 
by Schreber, and published as Plate XD, legended as “Simia Polycomos Zim- 
merm.” but, as shown below, the plate could not have been issued till after the 
year 1780, ^ when Zimmermann in his ‘GeographischeGeschichtedesMenschenund 
der vierfussigen Thiere’ (II, 1780, p. 202, no. 105) described his “Der vierfingerige 
Peruquen-Affe,” which he named “Cebus Polyhomos, based exclusively on the 
“Full-bottom Monkey” of Pennant,^ evidently from manuscript notes sent to 
him by Pennant before the publication of the ‘History of Qu adrupeds.’^ The 
publication of Zimmermann’s name and description of the species thus ante- 
dates Pennant’s by one year.'* This is the earliest technical designation for this 
species, usually cited as “Simia polycomos Schreber, 1775,” the current modern 
equivalent being “Colobus polycomus (Schreber).” 
The second of Pennant’s two species of monkey here under consideration is 
his “Bay Monkey” (1. c., p. 198, no. Ill), which he says likewise came from 
Sierra Leone and was based on Mr. Smeatham’s specimens in the Leverian 
* Sherborn (Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1891, p. 590) gives the date of publication 
as probably about 1800. 
2 Zimmermann, in the third volume of his ‘Geographische Geschichte’ (1783, 
p. 170), in his list of African mammals, gave it as “Der vierfingerige afri- 
kanische Affe, Cercopith. Polyhomos.” 
3 Zimmermann thus acknowledges (1 c., p. 202) Pennant’s favor: “Herr Pen- 
nant hat diese neue Affenart, die er in den vortreflichen Kabinette des Herrn 
Leevers (das reichste an Quadrupeden und Vogeln in Europe) fand, zuerst be- 
schrieben.” His citation of Pennant’s work is “Full-bottom Monkey. Pennant 
History of Quadrupeds,” without a reference to the page, which he always gives 
in citing Pennant’s earlier ‘Synopsis of Quadrupeds.’ 
^ Attention was first called in 1902 to the tenability of Zimmermann-’s name 
in my paper on “Zimmermann’s ‘Zoologise Geographies©’ and ‘Geographische 
Geschichte’ considered in their relation to Mammalian Nomenclature” (Bull. 
Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., xvi, 1902, p. 22). 
