NOTES ON THE SLOW LEMURS.
By Marcus Ward Lyon, Jr.,
Assistant Curator, Division of Mammals.
INTRODUCTION.
The following notes are not intended as a critical revision of the Slow Lemurs, and the conclusions here arrived at can not be considered as final, but in studying the specimens of the genus Nycticebus[1] in the collection of the United States National Museum some interesting facts have been brought to light which seem worth recording.
For a consideration of the generic and specific names for the Slow Lemurs, the reader is referred to the Revision of the Genus Nycticebus, by Stone and Rehn.[2] All of the forms there recognized are here considered as valid and two others are described. Messrs. Stone and Rehn had but eight specimens at their disposal, but now, due to the activities of Dr. W. L. Abbott in the Malayan region, I have before me 23 specimens, 8 of which are all from one locality in western Borneo. Even this seemingly abundant material is altogether too scant for arriving at definite conclusions. Here I wish to express my obligations to Mr. Witmer Stone of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences for the use of two specimens from Sumatra and one from Java.
Most writers have placed considerable weight on color as a specific character, often from lack of material overlooking the wide range of variation in specimens from a given locality. The only attention
- ↑ Dr. Menegaux, of the Paris Museum, in a letter to Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, jr., dated June 6, 1906, writes: “I have looked up that which you asked me concerning Bradicebus. The word is not cited in Magasin encyclop. 1795, classification des Mammifères by Geoffroy and Cuvier (in vol. II), although Gervais, apropos of the article on mammals, in the Dict. Pittoresque d’Hist. Nat. et de phénom. de la nature, vol. IV, p. 617, says textually ‘Geoffroy and Cuvier published together in vol. VI (?) of the Magasin encyclopédique a classification of mammals, which we transcribe entire: … Cucang, Bradicebus; Khoyak, Chirosciurus; Tarsie, Macrotarsus.’ … The citation of Gervais is given incorrectly.” Translation.
- ↑ Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1902, pp. 136–141.
Poceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXXI—No 1494.
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