CHAPTER II. 



REPORT UPON, AND LIST OF, THE MAMMALS COLLECTED IN. 1871-'72-'73, 



AND '74. 



The following report is based primarily upon the collections made 

 during the years above noted by the naturalists and other members of the 

 expedition, upon whose observations the field notes mainly rest. Besides 

 Dr. Yarrow, Drs. Rothrock, Newberry, and Hoffman, and Messrs. Henshaw 

 and Aiken, have each contributed to the general result. Our thanks are 

 due to these gentlemen, to Prof. H. Allen for examination of the Chiroptera, 

 to Mr. J. A. Allen for a like service rendered in the examination of the 

 Sciuridce and Leporidce, and to Mr. D. Of. Elliot, who obligingly gave us the 

 use of much synonymy of the Felidce, prepared for his forthcoming mono- 

 graph of that family. 



A few species, known to occur in the region explored, though not actu- 

 ally procured by the expedition, are introduced to complete an account of 

 certain groups. The article on the CMroptera represents a monographic 

 essay on all the North American species of that order. The extensive biblio- 

 graphy of the species presented throughout will, it is thought, materially 

 facilitate the study of the subject. Considerable technical matter is intro- 

 duced, for which, as well as for the nomenclature, Di\ Coues is mainly 

 responsible. The classification adopted is in close accord with the views of 

 Prof. Theodore N. Gill, whose 'Arrangement of the Families of Mammals," 

 published in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, seems to us to be, 

 upon the whole, the most philosophical among the many which have been 

 proposed. 



Lists of the specimens actually collected are rendered in tabular form. 

 The collections constitute a large representation of the mammalian life of 



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