FOREWORD 



The present nionograph, The Raccooii.s of North and Middle Amer- 

 ica, was completed by its author, Edward Alphonso Goldman, in 

 December 1940, and earh' in 1941 was submitted for publication in the 

 North American Fauna series. Advent of World War II delayed its 

 printing, and at the time of the death of Major Goldman, September 2, 

 1946, he had been so engrossed in the preparation of his manuscript 

 on Biological Investigations in Mexico that he had not revised the 

 raccoon manuscript. In the meantime one new subspecies Procyon 

 lotor megalodous Lowery had been described and several papers relating 

 to raccoons had been i)ublished. Since Major Goldman's death 

 another subspecific name Procyon lotor maritimus Dozier lias ajjpeared 

 and a few other papers have been published. 



In this final review and analysis of the manuscript it is believed de- 

 sirable to leave Goldman's views and expressions as little changed as 

 possible. Accordingly all editing has been done with this in view and 

 only such changes made as would clarify and collate the text, or make 

 consistent abbreviations and citations. Some important items to be 

 noted have been indicated and explained in footnotes. No deletions 

 of pertinent matter have l)een made. The iMbliography (p. 87j has 

 been extended to include literature published to date. The two 

 subspecies, Procyon lotor megalodous Lowers' (1943, p. 225) and Procyon 

 lotor )>mritimus Dozier (1948, p. 286), descriptions of which may be 

 found in the appendix (p. 84), have been included in the distributional 

 maji of species and subspecies of the subgenus Procyon (fig. 1) but have 

 not been included in the list of North American species and subspecies, 

 with type localities (p. 27\ in the key to species and subspecies (p. 29), 

 or in the general discussion throughout the text. 



