PEEFACE 



The first seven chapters of this volume were written 

 by my son, Mr. W. L. Sclater, and published in TJie 

 Geographical Journal (1894-97). They are now 

 reprinted here, with some slight alterations, by the 

 kind permission of the Council of the Royal 

 Geographical Society. The eighth chapter, on 

 Marine Mammals, was read by me as a paper at 

 a meeting of the Zoological Society of London 

 on March 16, 1897, and was subsequently pub- 

 lished in the Society's Proceedings. It is re- 

 produced here, with slight alterations, by the kind 

 permission of that Society. The remaining chapters 

 of this volume, in which the distribution of Mam- 

 mals is treated of systematically, have been pre- 

 pared by me specially for the present work. 



Of the fifty illustrations contained in the text, 

 which have been selected to show some of the chief 

 Mammals typical of the different Regions, forty 

 have been drawn by Mr. J. Smit specially for the 

 present work. Of the remaining ten, five have been 

 kindly lent to us by the Zoological Society of London 



