INTRODUCTION 



THE accounts that follow are intended to cover, first, those 

 species of New World mammals that have been extermi- 

 nated or seriously depleted by human agency during the past 

 four and a half centuries; and second, the oceanic species of 

 world-wide distribution, mainly cetaceans, seals, and sea-lions, 

 that within the historic period have suffered similar reduction, 

 some of them over a longer term. The method followed is to 

 give the common name, the current Latin name, reference to 

 original description with type locality, the important syno- 

 nyms, and references to figures of the exterior or the skull, or 

 both. Following a brief description there are given the geo- 

 graphic range past and present said a short description of each 

 species from the viewpoint mainly of its economic or com- 

 mercial use, present status, protective measures, and other 

 facts pertinent to a better understanding of its control or 

 encouragement or other special needs. The introductory para- 

 graphs to each of the major groups were prepared by Dr. J. 

 Eric Hill, of the American Museum of Natural History, and 

 are signed with his initials. 



Full acknowledgment is due Dr. Francis Harper for the large 

 share of the bibliographic work for the present volume that he 

 had already accomplished in connection with his work on the 

 Old World species preliminary to the preparation of the final 

 accounts, and which he has handed on to me. In laying out 

 the work Dr. Harper selected for inclusion those mammals 

 that have been wholly or in part extirpated or have been greatly 

 restricted in range or numbers by clearing and settlement or 

 by intensive hunting for food, fur, or other economic and com- 

 mercial purposes. In a search through literature and by ex- 

 tensive correspondence Dr. Harper had already accumulated 

 a considerable mass of information concerning the past and 

 present status of many of these species, and of this I have made 



