X DIRECTORY OF ZOOLOGICAL TAXONOMISTS 



mended to us who failed to respond to our questionnaires. At least two 

 requests were sent to every possible taxonomist known to us. 



Obviously the initial coverage was most complete for North Amer- 

 ica. Western Europe and Japan became reasonably well covered because 

 of ready response from most workers in these areas. The rest of the 

 world was more difficult to reach. Eastern Europe and the U.S.S.R. were 

 unrepresented in early lists, but, during the third and fourth years of 

 compiling, a great many workers in these areas became known to us, 

 and most of these returned data on their specialties. Only the People's 

 Republic of China remains virtually unrepresented in this list. 



Early coverage was also inadequate for workers on fossil animals. 

 Paleontologists have often inclined to consider themselves geologists 

 rather than zoologists, and they were slower to co-operate than the 

 neontologists. The very timely help of Mrs. Katherine Van Winkle Pal- 

 mer of the Paleontological Research Institution, at Ithaca, New York, 

 gave the real start in this field and enabled us to include a substantial 

 number of paleontological taxonomists. 



PREPARATION 



The manner of preparation of the Directory may be of interest to 

 persons attempting to understand its purposes and limitations. The fol- 

 lowing major steps were followed: (1) The available lists of specialists 

 and society members produced a list of prospective taxonomists, largely 

 American, with the general field of their specialization. Preliminary lists 

 were made from these for each class, order, or phylum. (2) Each person 

 on this list was then sent a card requesting data about his specialty, his 

 rnail address, and his institutional connection, along with a copy of the 

 appropriate preliminary lists. These he was asked to annotate with addi- 

 tions from all parts of the world. (If no reply was received, a second 

 notice was sent.) (3) All persons reported to us in the response to the 

 above were immediately sent invitations to submit data and other names. 

 (4) As soon as the response in a group warranted, a new preliminary 

 list for that group was prepared and included with invitations to those 

 subsequently reported to us. (5) After two years of mailing to all per- 

 sons suggested to us or listed in any of the numerous specialized direc- 

 tories that became known to us, the personal data received were filed in 

 two ways, alphabetically by taxonomist and systematically by the groups 

 of animals. (6) From this file, augmented daily by late returns, a manu- 

 script was typed using a format designed to save space but present the 

 maximum information. This manuscript was proofread against the 

 original cards. (7) From this typescript was prepared the final pages of 

 the Directory on a special typewriter, for photographic printing. This 

 second typescript (as seen in the printed pages) was proofread against 

 the first. The numerous diacritic marks, the proportional spacing, the 

 variety of languages, and the extreme variety of spellings and capitaliza- 



