REPORT ON THE MAMMALIA COLLECTED BY MR. ED- 

 MUND HELLER DURING THE PERUVIAN EXPEDITION 

 OF 1915 UNDER THE AUSPICES OF YALE UNIVERSITY 

 AND THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY. 



By Oldfield Thomas, 

 Of the British Museum, London, England. 



In 1912 and succeeding years an expedition was organized under 

 the auspices of Yale University and the American National Goo- 

 graphic Society for the exploration of the deserted Inca city Machu 

 Picchu, in the Cuzco region of Peru. To the 1915 staff of the expedi- 

 tion there was attached, as zoological collector, Mr. Edmund Heller, 

 already so well known for his work in California and British East 

 Africa, and it is on the result of his labors round Machu Picchu 

 that the following paper is based. The collection has been placed in 

 my hands by the authorities of the United States National Museum. 

 at the kind suggestion of Mr. Gerrit S. Miller.^ Thanks to my inter- 

 est for many years in the mammal fauna of the region, its examina- 

 tion has been a very great pleasure to me, and I must express my 

 acknowledgments to those to whom I owe the privilege of working 

 it out. 



An account of Machu Picchu and the highly successful expedition 

 of 1912 for its discovery and exploration is given by Prof. Hiram 



iThe Peruvian mammals were sent to Mr. Tnomas in JuJy and December, lrtl6, a time 

 when the German submarine campaign made transportation sufficiently dangerous to war- 

 rant the retaining of a reserve series in Washington. With the assistance of Mr. N. 

 Hollister I therefore divided the collection ijito two parts, one of which was to be for- 

 warded to London and the other to be kept here. Our system in picking out the two sets 

 was as follows : The various groups were divided into as many forms as appeared to be 

 obviously or possibly distinct. Of each of these forms at least one specimen from every 

 locality represented was placed in the first set. Moderately large series were divided 

 about evenly between the two, but in the case of very extensive series the first set re- 

 ceived not more than a representative lot of specimens. The material which forms the basis 

 of this paper, though it numbers only 614 :;pocimens out of a total of 892, is supposed 

 to represent every mammal obtained by Mr. Heller. While it is unfortunate that it was 

 necessary to divide the collection in this way, there is little probability that any forms 

 not included in the first set were retained in the second. At the time of making the division 

 we thought that the entire number represented by the material sent to Loudon was 

 slightly above 70 ; but only 65 were identified by Mr. Thomas. The lists of specimens 

 here published are limited to the first set. The photographs reproduced in plates 14 and 

 15 show the skulls of all of the type specimens in the collection. They were made 

 under my supervision after the material had been returned. — G. S. M., jr. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 58-No. 2333. 



217 



