Note on the Mus comissarius of Mearns

38

General Notes.

It is probable that the^earlier ancestral forms ofthe Delphinidsewere allied to Squalodon^{an<l thattbefamilies} Squalodontidse

and

Delphinidse areoffshootsfrom a

common

stem, though from^{the littlethatis}

known

ofthe vertebral

column and

limbsof the squalodonts the hypothesis^still appearstenable that the Delphinidse originated from astockdistinctfrom the former, buthaving

somewhat

similar tuberculateteeth.

The

teethofthefossilspecieshave been

compared

^withthetype-teeth^of Delphinodon mento

and

I),

wymani,

^{with theresultthatitcan be referred} with certainty ^to that genus,

and

is possibly ^identical with the latter species.

The

genus Delphinodon, ^therefore, which has hitherto been regarded ^asbelonging ^tothe Squalodontidse, ^is

now

^tobe transferred to the family Delphinidse.

A

^full description^of the fossilskeleton, with illustrations, will be pub- lished by the National

Museum

^at anearly date.

—Frederick

W.

True.

NOTE ON THE MUS COMMISSAR

^I

^IS OF MEARXS.

[By permission^oftheSecretaryof theSmithsonianInstitution]

In 1005, Dr.

Edgar

^A.

Mearns

described a house

mouse

from Davao, Mindanao, Philippine Islands, as

Mus

commissarius, basing ^hisaccount ontwo specimens.*

The

U.S.National

Museum

containsten additional examples ^{of this}animal, two from

San Fernando

do Union, Luzon, ^six fromTokio, Japan, and two from ^thevicinity of Misaki, south^of Tokio.

The

Japanese specimens agree^{inallessential} characters with those from the Philippines, and the series as awhole _represents a form easily dis- tinguishable from

Mus

muscuJus by ^itscranial characters.

The

skull is slightlysmallerthan thatof thecosmopolitan animal, but the ^teeth are disproportionately reduced

and

thedistancebetweenthe maxillary tooth- rowsis appreciably^less.

The

audital bullae are _also, as pointed out ⁱⁿ theoriginal description,

somewhat

reducedinsize.

—

Gerrit S. Miller, Jr.

ON THE CORRECT NAME OF THE INCA TERN.

Mr. Oberbolser has

shown

(Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Quarterly Issue, Vol. _48,part I,

May

13, 1005, 01⁾ that N;vnia Boie is

untenable as the generic

name

for the Inca Tern.

He

_adopts Inca Jardine (Contr. Orn. 1850, 32) but unfortunately ^this

name

^is also untenable on account of Inca _Lepeletier

and

Serville (Encycl. Meth., Zoology, ^Vol. N, 1825, 380) ^fora genus ^of Coleoptera.

The

next avail- able

name

is apparently Larosterna Blyth ^{(Cat. Birds} Mus. As. Soc, 1852, 293)

and

thespecies willstand_as, Laroslerna inca (Lesson).

—J.

H. _Riley.

*Proc.U.S.NationalMuseum, XXVIII,p. 449,

May

13, 1905.