672 ^ CENTURY OF PROGRESS IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 



have done. The Quadrupeds is, nevertheless, an enduring monument to these two 

 men. 



Robert Kennicott, dead in the Arctic at thirty years, was a disciple of Baird. 

 When only twenty-two years of age, he published a report on the mammals of 

 Illinois, which includes substantial information on many common species (Ken- 

 nicott, 1858). 



The monumental Pacific Railroad report of Baird, who knew only 220 living 

 kinds of North American mammals, was, in some respects, a standard until the 

 time of Merriam. Between the two decades that separated the productive efforts 

 of these two men, an amazing book appeared. In 1876, when only twenty-five 

 years old, David Starr Jordan, then a young teacher in Wisconsin, published his 

 A Manual of the Vertebrates of Eastern United States. It was, and still is, widely 

 used, although now out of print. Jordan's Manual was the bible of many an early 

 naturalist, for it included simple keys and brief descriptions of all of the known 

 vertebrates occurring from the Atlantic coast to Iowa and south to North Caro- 

 line. Primarily an ichthyologist, Jordan had received a good basic training in 

 the vertebrates at Cornell University. 



The unparalleled publications of Merriam had set the style in the latter part 

 of the nineteenth century. His Mammals of the Adirondaks, published in book 

 form in 1884, remains a classic and a model for studies yet to come. We must not 

 disregard the influence of Trouessart, whose Catalogue 3Iammalium (1897-1905) 

 is a concise review of the then known mammals of the world. 



During the next decade the important American publications on mammals 

 were largely confined to the reports of the Biological Survey. The North Ameri- 

 can Fauna series appeared regularly, containing much on the systematics of our 

 native species. 



To detail the many excellent reports on mammals that have made their ap- 

 pearance in the past twenty-five years would be tiresome to the reader and serve 

 no useful purpose. With what one writer might consider the highlights of achieve- 

 ment in the field of literature, a score stand ready to disagree. Subject matter 

 and the major references will be listed, if only to give an index to the breadth of 

 the subject. The inquisitive reader will find, in the documentations of the studies 

 referred to below, the more important references that attempt to cover the subject. 



General reference works on mammals are notable for their paucity. Flower 

 and Lydekker's Mammals Living and Extiyict, published in 1891, and Beddard's 

 classic Mammalia in the Cambridge Natural History Series are inclusive accounts 

 of the mammals of the world. Surely these volumes, together with Weber's Die 

 Saugetiere, appearing in 1904, may be considered outstanding. The excellent but 

 smaller volumes of Angel Cabrera Manual de Mastozoologia and Dr. F. Bourliere's 

 Vie et Moeurs des Mammiferes stress the ecological approach. 



E. W. Nelson's popular account of North American mammals had a salutary 

 effect on the study of our native species. Published by the National Geographic 

 Society in 1916 and 1918, this report was embellished by the peerleess artistry of 

 Louis Agassiz Fuertes. A decade before the appearance of these studies, the 

 more serious student of mammalogy was treated to W. D. Scott's History of Land 

 Mammals in the Western Hemisphere. 



In 1929, Ernest Thompson Seton's Lives of Game Animals appeared. In his 

 final words of the preface, he says : 



