LIST OF MAMMALS 



OBTAINED BY 



THADDEUS SURBER, 



FN 



NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA 

 AND FLORIDA. 



Mr. Surber made two trips to the south Atlantic States and 

 Florida, in the winters of 1899-1900, and 1900-1901, and the present 

 collection of skins, amounting to about four hundred and fifty, is the 

 result of his labor. He stopped at different places on his route to 

 Florida where the types of newly described forms had been procured, 

 such as Riceboro, St. Marys, etc. He was refused permission to 

 trap on 'Cumberland Island and consequently was unable to obtain 

 specimens of the Geomys found there and described by Mr. Bangs. 

 In Florida he visited various type localities and a considerable 

 number of topotypes were procured. The mammals of Florida have 

 suffered many divisions, or as it may be termed, disintegration of 

 species, and it was my desire to obtain as many specimens as possible, 

 especially of those belonging to sub-species, in order to get an idea 

 whether or not these forms could produce any convincing reasons for 

 their existence. Of some of these, such as the opossum, and the 

 mole from Anastasia Island, a definite conclusion was reached, but 

 of the raccoon and certain mice and gophers (Geomys), my series 

 were not sufficient to enable me to arrive at a satisfactory decision. 

 After finding, as was the case in one instance, that seventy speci- 

 mens of the species and race were not enough to establish a claim to 

 subspecific rank, one might naturally ask, how many examples must 

 one have before he is authorized to form an opinion as to subspecific 

 values? Few persons comparatively can have at their disposal 

 seventy specimens of a single form, and if these are not sufficient 

 to establish a species or subspecies, it would seem likely that the 

 fault lay more with the describer of the form than with him who 

 failed to find the characters that were supposed to exist. 



Florida has been a fruitful field for the creation of subspecies, 

 and few opportunities for describing them have been missed, but a 

 number are evidently in a very unsatisfactory state, and require an 



