On certain of the smaller S,-American Cervidse. 585 LXXr. — On certain of the smaller S.-American CerviJa3. By Oldfield Thomas. (Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) A. Brockets. (Genus Mazama.) Owing to their remarkable variability both in cranial and external characters the Brockets oli the genus Mazama are exceedingly difficult to work out systematically with any exactness. Thus, while in most cases the widely spread species Mazama americana {M. rufa auctorum) *, ranging from Guiana to Paraguay and Rio Grande do Sul, has the hairs of its nape reversed up the centre, two specimens in the Museum have no trace of this arrangement, the hairs being directed backwards as usual ; and one of these specimens was obtained at the same time and place as examples of the normal reversed type. And, again, of two specimens of M. tenia from Guatemala, one has the nape-hairs reversed and the other not. M. simplicicornis, the common small species, with butiy underside, whose range is coextensive with til at of M. americana, seems never to have any hairs reversed on the nape. In the skull the obvious character as to the extension upwards of the premaxillaj towards or to the nasals proves also to be rather variable, examples from the same locality having sometimes considerable differences in this respect. Still at the same time there are certain average differences * When resuscitating the name americana from Erxleben's Moschus americanus (Field Museum Nat. Hist. Publ. no. 155, vol. x. p. 43, 1912) it is a pity that Mr. Osgood did not investigate for himself the question as to which species it should be applied to, instead of acceptino the synonymies of people who believed it to be a preoccupied name, and one therefore requiring little attention. Instead of its applying to '^M. netnori-vaffiM " (M. simplicieoi-nis), the smaller Brocket ot' Guiana, it clearly belongs to the larger one, commonly known as M. rufa, and must I am afraid, be used for it. On the other hand, while differing from Mr. Osgood as to the applica-tion of this ffj»(';7Crt«?«, I cordially agree with him as to the want of nomenclatural status in the case of the other americujxus on p. 312 of Erxleben's work. There americanus was simply a word, not a name as is shown, among other things, by its being italicized. In Erxlebeu none of the technical names are italicized, while ordinary words on which he wished to lay emphasis were {cf. " Magnitudocei-vi damfe," p. 313, "altera .... altera,^' p. 370). As a consequence, the name of the common Noith-American deer should be Odocoileus virginiaims, Bodd., not americanus Erxl. '
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