XX PREFACE 



not using Latin names which will indicate genus, subgenus, 

 species, subspecies, and variety, if great exactness in the 

 conveyance of the idea is needed; there is, as we have al- 

 ready said, nothing sacred in the use of Latin binomial ter- 

 minology. But in ordinary scientific writing for laymen — 

 when we say scientific writing for laymen, we mean the kind 

 of writing which found its highest expression in the works of 

 such masters of science as Darwin and Huxley — it is better 

 to use terminology which is fairly clear and fairly easy to 

 understand. This does not mean that we can revert to the 

 Linnaean genera and species; but it does mean that we can 

 try to use genera and species in somewhat the same sense 

 as Linnaeus used them, of course keeping in view the enor- 

 mous mass of information which has been accumulated 

 since the great Swedish naturalist first reduced biology 

 from chaos to system. 



In order to define the species more clearly we have made 

 all the geographical forms of subspecific rank by taking 

 the first described one as the typical race and repeating 

 the specific name. The first known form of any specific 

 group is necessarily originally described as a species, but 

 later, upon the recognition of additional races, the original 

 must be reduced so as not to confuse our conception of the 

 species. The Grant gazelle, for instance, was originally 

 described as Gazella granti from Ugogo in German East 

 Africa, and for a considerable number of years this re- 

 mained the only form described and the original locality 

 the only place from which it was known. Later, upon the 

 exploration of East Africa by sportsmen, many specimens 

 were collected in various parts of the country and gradually 

 the various races we now recognize were described, as our 



