216 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 
THE GENERIC NAME OF THE C0M:\I0N FLYING-SQUIRRELS. 
The generic name Sciuropterus F. Cuvier, 1825, in current use for the 
common palearctic and American flying squirrels, must, according to the 
international code, give place to Pteromys G. Cuvier, 1800. While 
Sciuropterus contained the species volans (Sciurus volans Linnrens= 
Pteromys russicus Tiedemann) only, Pteromys included the same animal 
and Sciurus petaurista Gmelin, the latter type by tantonymj'^ of the 
genus Petaurista Link, 1795. In 1826* F. Cuvier selected the species 
petaurista as the type of Pteromys, thus apjairently making the name a 
synonym of Petaurista. Six years previously, however, Flemingt had 
chosen volans as type, a fact hitherto overlooked. 
—Gerrit S. Miller, Jr. 
ON THE SYSTEMATIC NAMES OF THE CHEETAHS. 
In a recent paper on the nomenclature of the cheetahs. Dr. jMax Hilz- 
heimert proposes serious changes from the conclusions on this subject 
which I presented in ]911§. The.se changes I believe to be entirely 
erroneous, and they should not be passed unnoticed. 
The plan to transfer the name Felis jubata Schreber to the Indian 
cheetah, on the basis of the color and markings of the exceedingly inac¬ 
curate picture (plate 105) in Schreber’s work, in preference to my method 
of fixing the type locality from the excellent text, is surely not defensible. 
The plate in question is barely identifiable as to genus, much less species 
or subspecies. The name Felis guttata Hermann, which I threw out as 
indeterminable, is, I believe, better left so. AVhether the basis for the 
name be taken from Hermann’s brief text or from Hammer’s description 
the name can not be fixed on a cheetah. The plate in Schreber (105 b), 
even if it could be allowed to have weight in the determination of Her¬ 
mann’s name, is colored so unlike any cheetah that the name would still 
be better left out of the question. The name must, however, rest on the 
original publication, where it either refers to a .serval or else is indeter¬ 
minable. 
Great stress is laid by Hilzheimer on tlie fact that I made no use of the 
Acinonyx guepard,^' oi Brookes, which Hilzheimer, without hav¬ 
ing seen the original reference, considers the type of the genus Acinonyx. 
Acinonyx is a valid name only on page 16 of Brookes’ Catalogue and 
includes only the single species Acinonyx Venator of India, which is thus 
the type of the genus by monotypy. On page .33, as cited in quotation 
by Palmer, who had not at that time seen the work, Acinonyx is used in 
connection with A. guepard and A. Venator, but all are nomina nuda. 
Not being a valid name, guepard did not receive consideration in my 
paper. 
The earliest valid names for African and Indian cheetahs should, I 
believe, remain just as I stated in juhatus Schreber and venaticus 
Smith, respectiv ely. ^ _iV. Hollister. 
*Dict. Sci. Nat.. Vol. 44, p. 40. ^ 
t Philos, of Zool., Vol. 2, p. 190. 
jSitz-ber. Ges. nat. Fr., Berlin, 1913, pp. 28.3-292. 
Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, Vol. 24, pp. 225-226,1911. 
