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Show 174 MR. R. I. POCOCK ON A HAINAN GIBBON. [May 16, The Name of the Species. The correct name for this species is still unsettled. The specimen now living in the Gardens is specifically identical with the type of H. hainanus Thos., and with the specimen previously exhibited in the Menagerie * and now in the British Museum, with both of which I have compared it. According to Matscliie t, however, hainanus is a synonym of coucolor Harlan J. This opinion was based apparently upon the similarity in colour between the types of concolor and hainanus ; but it unfortunately involves the assumption that the locality given for concolor, namely Borneo, is erroneous. It is also objectionable on the grounds that the hair of concolor was described as " thick, woolly, and frizzled." The last two epithets are in no sense applicable to the hair of either of the three specimens of hainanus, comprising young and adult animals, available for examination. In these the hair, although thick, is smooth, depressed, relatively coarse, and quite unlike the hair of a young specimen of IT. lar from Pahang, now in the Gardens, which is essentially rough and woolly; and also equally unlike that of examples of H. agilis in the British Museum, which is beautifully silky and woolly. Furthermore, Trouessart § adopts for the species the name harlani, unlawfully proposed by Lesson || as a substitute for concolor Harl., alleging that concolor was first applied by Harlan in 1825 to a young specimen of H. (Symphalangus) syndactylus. Concolor, therefore, falls as a synonym of syndactylus, and harlani comes in for the species described by Harlan in 1827, which Trouessart follows Matschie in identifying with hainanus. Trouessart, however, gives no reference to Harlan's paper of 1825, and since I have failed to find it in the Boyal Society's Catalogue, and there is no suggestion in Harlan's paper of 1827 (contained in a volume dated 1825), or in Lesson's almost contemporaneous criticism of it, that the name concolor had been previously published, I must conclude that Trouessart has fallen into some error. But in any case, since the specimen described by Harlan in 1827 as concolor and renamed harlani by Lesson in the same year and erroneously quoted as niger by Ogilby (P. Z. S. 1840, p. 20) was definitely stated to have come from Borneo and to have had thick woolly frizzled hair, and since it is only known to have resembled the type of hainanus in the matter of coloration, an admittedly variable feature in the genus and one in which it also resembles II. syndactylus9^, it is, in my opinion, premature to state without qualification that hainanus is a synonym of concolor. * Sclater, P. Z. S. 1892, p. 541. t SB. Ges. nat. Freunde Berlin, 1893, p. 211. t Jr. Acad. Sci. Philad. v. pt. 2, p. 231 (1827). § Cat. Manim. Suppl. 1904, p. 6. l| Bull. Sci. Nat. xiii. p. I l l (1827). *[ Since Harlan states (loc.cit. p. 231) that concolor differs from I I . syndactylus and other species in being of a universal black colour, it is assumable that lie did not know I I . syndactylus. I do not, however, suggest that concolor is a synonym of syndactylus, because Harlan states that his specimen had no guttural sacs. |
