MAMMALOGY MILLER 407 



where they were studied and reported on by Professor Baird, whose 

 Mammals of North America, which appeared in 1859 as Volume 

 VIII of the Pacific Railroad Survey Reports, gave the most ade- 

 quate summary of the North American fauna ever worked out by 

 the older methods. It remained the standard authority on the sub- 

 ject until Merriam, 30 years later, began to revolutionize our knowl- 

 edge of mammals. During the period between Baird and Merriam 

 the Smithsonian Institution dominated the field of mammalogy in 

 North America. Except fof relatively small collections in the mu- 

 seums of Philadelphia and Cambridge no important mass of mate- 

 rial for study existed outside of Washington, and at that time the 

 Smithsonian was the only scientific agency in Washington engaged 

 on this particular branch of research. Important works which were 

 published during this period, either by the Smithsonian Institution 

 or under its inspiration, are Harrison Allen's Monograph of the 

 Bats of North America (1864), J. A. Allen's The American Bisons, 

 Living and Extinct (1876), Coues' Fur-bearing Animals (1877), 

 Coues and J. A. Allen's Monographs of North American Rodentia 

 (1877), J. A. Allen's History of North America Pinnipeds (1880), 

 and True's Review of the Family Delphinidae [dolphins and por- 

 poises] 1889. Excellent though all of this work may have been when 

 judged by the standards of its time, the relatively small accretion 

 which it brought to our knowledge is shown by the fact that True as 

 late as 1885, was able to list only 363 mammals as ascertained to in- 

 habit North America. This is an apparent increase of 143 over the 

 220 of Baird; but to make the comparison a fair one the 146 bats, 

 seals, sea-cows, whales and porpoises, which True enumerated in his 

 paper, must be subtracted because they were not dealt with by his 

 predecessor. The advance made during these years is thus seen to be 

 insignificant compared to the sudden leap forward inspired by the 

 adoption of the new technique. 



The present phase of mammalogy in North America began with 

 the founding, in 1886, of a Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy 

 under the United States Department of Agriculture. This division, 

 which subsequently grew into the Bureau of Biological Survey, was 

 organized by Doctor Merriam and directed by him until his resigna- 

 tion in 1910. One of the primary objects of the survey was to map 

 the geographical distribution of the mammals and birds of North 

 America, the related work on plants and insects having already been 

 provided for. At its outset this undertaking was met by the difficulty 

 that the kinds of mammals, when systematically collected, proved to 

 be more numerous than had been supposed. Consequently the first 

 step toward accurate mapping was necessarily to take a census of the 

 mammal population and find out exactly what and how many were 

 the kinds to be mapped. In 1885, as we have seen, the number was 



