INTRODUCTION 



Introdudlion 



The area treated of in this volume is strictly California and 

 that part of the Pacific Ocean properly belonging to California. 

 All the mammals described are known to have been found with- 

 in the State or within sight of its shores. The number of species 

 and subspecies proves to be very large. This is accounted for partly 

 by the large extent and great latitudinal length of the State, but 

 more by the very great variety of climate within the State, greater 

 than occurs in any other State of the Union ; grading all the way 

 from the subtropical region of the Colorado Valley and Desert to 

 the arctic climate of the eternal snows on the summits of the 

 Sierra Nevada. 



No general work covering the mammals of this State has 

 been published since 1857, when Bairds Vol. VIII of the Pacific 

 Railroad Reports was issued. This did not contain the marine 

 mammals, the bats nor man. A great advance in our knowledge 

 of the land mammals has occurred within the last fifteen years, 

 and some of the material obtained in this time has not yet been 

 critically examined by systematic experts, hence we may expect 

 further additions to the present known species, as well as more 

 or less revision of the nomenclature. 



The distribution of species herein given has been checked in 



