FOREWORD 



E1933 Dr. John C. Phillips, a founder and the first chairman 

 >f the American Committee for International Wild Life Protec- 

 tion, now in its twelfth year, was an official observer for our 

 Government at the meetings of the London Convention for the 

 Protection of the Fauna and Flora of Africa. He returned from 

 that conference, which concerned itself primarily with the larger 

 mammals of Africa, with the conviction that there was a basic need 

 for the compilation of our present knowledge concerning the recently 

 extinct and vanishing mammals, if we are to plan intelligently for 

 the future preservation of wild life in this fast-changing world. 

 This would be a pioneer job requiring the use of widely scattered 

 sources. Such a compilation could serve as a sound foundation for 

 future plans that would have to be developed to meet the ever- 

 increasing threats of extermination. This research could also spot- 

 light the species that are most threatened and reveal probable 

 causes of extinction that might suggest new lines of effective action 

 to improve their chances of survival. 



For this task the American Committee engaged the services of 

 Dr. Francis Harper, an experienced mammalogist and a meticulous 

 research worker. Dr. Harper started the project in May, 1936, 

 and devoted more than three years to the work. The magnitude 

 of the undertaking proved to be much greater than originally ex- 

 pected, and the reasons for this are clearly set forth by the author 

 in the introduction to the present volume. He has spoken for the 

 Committee in the acknowledgments of assistance. 



The American Committee takes this opportunity to repeat its 

 expression of gratitude to Dr. Harper for the hard work and care 

 that he has devoted to the preparation of this volume. We are 

 likewise grateful to Mr. Paul H. Oehser, editor of the United 

 States National Museum, for the supervision of this volume through 

 the press and for the preparation of the index. 



This whole undertaking would not have been possible without 

 generous financial assistance. This has come from about 40 different 

 sources, including the American Philosophical Society, the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the Boone and Crockett Club, 

 the Conservation Committee of the New York Zoological Society, 

 the American Wild Life Institute, and several members and mem- 



