144 BULLETIN OF THE 



Zoology of the State (pp. 520, 527), in 1833. Forty-five species are 

 there given, including the two Seals and three Cetaceans. To a few only 

 are notes added respecting their relative abundance. Dr. Emmons's 

 first Report, under the Act of the Legislature of 1837 for a Natural 

 History Survey of the State, was published in 1838. In 1840 a second 

 and final Report* was presented, containing the substance of the first, 

 and considerably increased by additions. These Reports contain de- 

 scriptions of all the land Mammalia then known to inhabit the State, 

 with interesting notes on their habits and distribution, but nothing on 

 the marine. The whole number of species given is forty-four, two of 

 which (Ari'icola hirsu(a = A. riparia, and A. albo-rufescens = A. 

 riparia, albino) were erroneously described as new. Eliminating three 

 that have since been reduced to synonymes (Gondylwa macroura, 

 Sciurus niger, Arvicola albo-rufescens) leaves forty-one as the number 

 of valid species embraced in this report. The animal now known as 

 Hespcromys leucopus Baird was described as Arvicola Emmonsii De 

 Kay. On the whole, however, the work is remarkable for its accu- 

 racy, and, compared with those of most recent writers, for the small 

 number of merely nominal species it contains. 



The only other special treatise on our Mammals is an article by Mr. 

 E. A. Samuels, in the Ninth Annual Report of the State Board of 

 Agriculture,! in which thirty-nine species are described, excluding two 

 merely nominal (a Marina and Arvicola rufidorsum), mainly from 

 Massachusetts specimens in the State Cabinet of Natural History ; 

 it also contains notes on their habits, and several woodcuts of the 

 animals. Though not assuming to give all the species of the State, 

 Mr. Samuels includes five or six described since the publication of 

 Dr. Emmons's Report, but omits several of that author that are 

 not uncommon in certain sections of the State, as well as all the 

 marine species. In Audubon and Bachman's "Viviparous Quadru- 

 peds of North America" (three volumes, 8vo, 1846-1853) are 

 numerous references to Massachusetts Mammals specimens of which 

 were frequently furnished these authors by our well-known ornithol- 

 ogist, Dr. T. M. Brewer, of Boston. But since the publication of 

 Dr. Emmons's Report, no one, excepting perhaps Dr. Brewer and 



* Report on the Quadrupeds of Massachusetts. By Ebenezer Emmons, M-D. 

 1840. 8vo. pp. 86. This is the edition cited in the following pages, 

 t Agr. of Mass., 1861, pp. 137 - 191. 



