172 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



and it undoubtedly contains a few untenable records and some names 

 which have been changed by the discovery of earlier synonyms and 

 of varietal forms. But on the whole it was a work of honest eflPort 

 and real merit. 



Another worker, Mr. A. B. Baker, now of the National Zoological 

 Park, Washington, D. C, but formerly of Trego county, presented be- 

 fore the Academy a list of mammals taken or observed by him in the 

 vicinity of Wa Keeney, Kan. This was published in volume II of the 

 Transactions of the Academy, and is of much value as a local list. 

 Some changes in nomenclature have been made since its publication. 



Professor Cragin, formerly of Washburn College, in the natural- 

 history bulletins of that institution, presented a few scattered notes 

 on the mammals of the state. Mr. J. R. Mead, of Wichita, has given 

 us some interesting notes of his recollections of our larger mammals, 

 as he found them in hunting and trapping expeditions to the plains 

 in the fifties. 



Professor Dyche, of our University, has been too busy as a worker 

 to do much writing, but has given us some valuable notes on the food 

 of some of our animals. I learn that he is preparing a list of our 

 mammals, intending to publish it as soon as some problems of distri- 

 bution shall be settled. When it is ready, it will undoubtedly be a 

 notable contribution to our knowledge of the Kansas mammalia. 



The present list embraces representatives of twenty families and 

 forty-eight genera of mammals, and includes eighty-one species and 

 subspecies. 



Order l.—MARSUPIALIA. Marsupials. 

 Family Didelphyid^e. Opossums. 



1. Didelphis virginiana Kerr. Virginia Opossum. 



Common in the wooded parts of the state and along the streams west- 

 ward. It is possible that the dark form, Didelphis californicus, may 

 occur in the southern part of the state. 



Order II.— UNGULA TA. Hoofed mammals. 

 Family Cervid^. Deer. 



2. Cervus canadensis Erxl. American Elk. 



Formerly common throughout the state. Now extinct. 



3. Odocoileus americanus macrourua Rafin. Long-tailed deer. 



Rafinesque's type of this animal was from the plains of the Kansas river. 

 It is uncertain whether the animal really differs from the Eastern 

 White-tailed deer. It is now probably extinct in the state. 



4. Odocoileus hemionus Rafin. Black-tailed Deer, Mule Deer. 



This deer was still found in western Kansas in 1884, but has now prob- 

 ably entirely disappeared. 



