INTRODUCTION 



Need for a Field Book 



Many books and papers have been written about North 

 American mammals. Some of these have been written for 

 the layman; by far the greater number have been penned for 

 a very limited circle of readers, the mammalogists or scientific 

 students of mammalogy. While the study of mammals has 

 been going on for centuries, the field has been by no means 

 worked out ; there are many mammals today of which we know 

 almost nothing, aside from their physical appearance. In 

 common with all sciences, the intensive study of mammals has 

 made great progress in recent years. We go to the older 

 works, such as Audubon and Bachman, because they are 

 classics, but in the light of present-day knowledge they fall 

 short of our requirements. We have discovered so many new 

 species which were unknown at that time, or we have so altered 

 the system of classification in the attempt to improve the 

 science, that the earlier writings do not bridge the gaps. It 

 may be stated that there is no single publication today which 

 attempts to give a full and adequate synopsis, with geographi- 

 ical distribution and notes on habits, of every North American 

 mammal. The United States National Museum has published 

 a very excellent check-list of North American mammals, 

 written by Gerrit S. Miller, Jr., of which more will be said 

 later, which is invaluable to students of rnammals, but this 

 volume by itself will not carry the layman far because it 

 contains no descriptions and but few common names. There 

 are complete descriptions, names, habits, etc., for the mam- 

 mals of certain favored districts, and several very useful and 

 valuable publications on the mammals of the country at large, 

 the outstanding example of which is the recent four- volume 

 work by Seton, the very finest book on mammals ever written 

 for the layman. This latter is a limited, de luxe edition of a 

 size to be used only in the library and, complete as it is, it 

 does not deal with all of the smaller mammals^ O /I A 



