VOL. XI, PP. 241-270 DECEMBER 17, 1897 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON A LIST OF THE GENERIC AND FAMILY NAMES OF RODENTS. BY T. 8. PALMER. Generic names of mammals have undergone many changes in recent years, and in no group is this more apparent than in the Rodentia. Not only have new names been proposed for a host of new forms, but many well-known genera now appear under names long forgotten, but revived in obedience to the law of priority. Linnaeus, in 1758, recognized only six genera of ro dents (including Rhinoceros!) ; Agassiz, in 1842-'46, recorded about 220 generic names in this order, and Marschall, in 1873, added 65 more, making a total of somewhat less than 300. The present list contains more than 600 (a large proportion of which are, of course, synonyms), comprising perhaps 15 percent of the entire number of generic and subgeneric names ever proposed for mammals. Recent changes in the nomenclature of the Rodentia are well exemplified in two important papers which have appeared dur ing the past few months one, by Mr. Oldfield Thomas, entitled ' On the Genera of Rodents 'j 1 the other, by Dr. E. L. Troues-sart, comprising part of the second edition of his ' Catalogus Mammalium.' The former paper gives merely a list of the groups of living rodents which the author considers worthy of generic rank, together with references to the original description of each genus. Trouessart's Catalogue, more ambitious in its scope, is 1 Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1896, pp. 1012-1028. 56 BIOT,. Soc. WASH., Vot. XI, 1897 (241)
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