408 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 28 



supposed to be 363 ; by the end of the year 1900 it had been increased 

 to about 1,450. Subsequent counts showed 2,138 in 1911 and 2,554 

 in 1923.1 



Merriam gathered about him during the nineties a corps of as- 

 sistants whom he trained in methods of work in both field and 

 museum — an invahiable experience, as I personally know. The group 

 of mammalogists thus formed, together with Dr. J. A. Allen of New 

 York, an older man than Merrian, but profoundly influenced by him 

 from about 1890 until Allen's death in 1921, have been the workers 

 to whose efforts tlie advance in North American mammalogy has 

 been mainly due. 



To review the details of actual present-day work in mammalogy 

 throughout the world would carrj^ us beyond the limits of this article. 

 In general it may be said that the chief advances are being made by 

 the efforts of large museums and of governmental agencies ; relatively 

 little is being accomplished by universities in the field of systematic 

 research in mammalogy, though ably conducted courses of instruc- 

 tion have recently been established, notably at Harvard, the Uni- 

 versity of Wisconsin, and the University of California; private 

 effort is resulting in the accumulation of many valuable specimens 

 and observations, but it has had no effect on the general course of 

 events except as it may have contributed to the development of 

 museums — witness the remarkable work of Dr. W. L. Abbott for 

 the Smithsonian Institution in exploring the Malay Archipelago, 

 and the generous subsidy of the Duke of Bedford to enable the 

 British Museum to carry on studies of mammals in China and Japan. 



In the United States the most important agency, as far as the 

 study of North American mammals is concerned, has been and still 

 is the Biological Survey under the United States Department of 

 Agriculture. The United States National Museum, a branch of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, has avoided duplication of the work of the 

 survey and has turned its attention to the mammals of the West 

 Indies, Eastern Asia, the Malay region, Australia, Europe, and 

 Africa. In New York the American Museum of Natural History 

 is building up large collections from North, Central, and South 

 America, from China, Mongolia, and other parts of Asia, from Aus- 

 tralia, and from Africa. The Museum of Comparative Zoology in 

 Cambridge has made important contributions to our knowledge of 

 the mammals of China and Africa. In Chicago the Field Museum 

 of Natural History has accumulated extensive collections from west- 

 ern North America and from East Africa; it is now actively en- 

 gaged in South America. The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of 

 the University of California, founded by private endowment, has 



> See the List of North American Mammals 1923, issued by the Smithsonian Institution 

 as Bull. U. S. National Museum, No. 128, Apr. 29, 1924. 



