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Show 636 MR. W. T. BLANFORD ON THE [Dec. 6, race commonly called V. montana *. The North-African V. nilotica and the Persian V. persica are considerably smaller ; and V. grrffithi of Afghanistan, V. pusilla of the Punjab, and V. leucopus of Western India are of still inferior dimensions, the last-named being the smallest of the series. But except in size I can find no constant distinction between these races. I do not think in any case that V. griffithi and V. pusilla can be distinguished from V. leucopus, and I have equally little hesitation in uniting V. flavescens and the so-called V. montana with V. alopex ; but I do not feel so sure about V. persica and V. nilotica. So far as India is concerned, it appears most convenient, to recognize as distinct species the large V. alopex (including V. flavescens and V. montana v. himalayica) and the small V. leucopus (comprising V. pusilla and V. griffithi), especially as the two are said to occur together in Afghanistan ; and it is possible that V. nilotica, originally described as being the size of the European Red Fox (V. alopex), may be a variety of that species, and V. persica of V. leucopus. The North-American Cross Fox, Canis fulvus v. pennsylvanicus, appears also to be a variety of V. alopex. IX. On the Generic Terms MUSTELA, MARTES, and PUTORIUS. By most English naturalists the Martens have been referred to a genus Martes, and the Polecats and Weasels to Mustela, under the supposition that the old Linnaean genus Mustela was thus divided by Cuvier in 1797 in his 'Tableau Elementaire.' This was not the case ; he merely called the Martens in French " Les Martes." But he did divide the genus in the ' Regne Animal,' 1st ed., published in 1817, and proposed four subgenera, keeping the Martens alone in Mustela, and using Putorius for the Weasels and Polecats 2. Alston urges, P. Z. S. 1879, p. 468, that the names then proposed by Cuvier cannot be employed as they are only of subgeneric value; but not only have they been generally used by continental naturalists, but several of the best known genera of birds, amongst others Ploceus, Vidua, and Budytes, stand on precisely the same foundation, having been similarly proposed in the same work. There is nothing to show that the Weasels were considered the typical forms of Mustela by Linnaeus ; indeed his description of the genus points rather to the Martens, and the word Mustela in Latin appears to have been employed for a Marten. X. On XANTHARFYIA, ELEUTHERURA, and CYNONYCTERIS. My friend Mr. Dobson, in his valuable works on Chiroptera, adopted Peters's term Cynonycteris, first proposed in 1852, for the genus of Fruit-eating Bats comprising Pteropus amplexicaudatus, 1 Canis vulpes montana, Pearson, J. A. S. B. v. p. 313. According to the views of many of the best naturalists, a trinomial appellation like this has no claim to priority, and Ogilby's Canis himalayicus, P. Z. S. 1836, p. 103, given the same year, would be preferred. 2 M y attention was called to this by Mr. Oldfield Thomas. |