Vlll FOREWORD 



needed to substantiate proposals for the protection of vanishing 

 species in their native habitat through the establishment of adequate 

 national parks and reserves. The material for the preparation of 

 such a report was widely scattered, and assembling and evaluating it 

 involved a great deal of correspondence with zoologists, game 

 wardens, nature protection societies, and governments in many parts 

 of the world, as well as a survey of widely scattered articles in popular 

 magazines, books on sport and travel, and scientific literature. 



Dr. Francis Harper, of Philadelphia, under arrangements made by 

 Dr. Phillips, undertook this work and devoted many months of care- 

 ful research to the preparation of material on the Old World mammals, 

 treating in his report (as yet unpublished) about 400 forms. Dr. 

 Allen made use of a special bibliography of references to literature 

 collected by Dr. Harper, and with this as a basis prepared the present 

 work on the New World and marine mammals, assembling much 

 additional material to complete it. 



The Harper-Allen study could never have been brought to its 

 present state of completion had it not been for the most generous 

 financial assistance received in the form of gifts from many individuals 

 over a period of seven years, a special grant from the Penrose Fund 

 of the American Philosophical Society (1937, No. 195), and a publi- 

 cation grant from the Boone and Crockett Club and the Conservation 

 Committee of the New York Zoological Society. The American 

 Committee takes this opportunity to express its gratitude to Dr. 

 Allen and to Dr. Harper for their months of work in the preparation 

 of material for reports on recently extinct and vanishing mammals 

 of the world. We wish also to thank the forty financial contributors 

 of information from many parts of the world. We are indebted 

 further to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, whose 

 famous library proved of inestimable assistance, and to the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology, at Cambridge, for the use of its library and 

 other facilities. Thanks are due also to Dr. John Eric Hill, of the 

 American Museum of Natural History, for his contributions to Dr. 

 Allen's volume, and to Mr. Paul H. Oehser, editor of the United 

 States National Museum, for the editorial supervision of this volume 

 through the press and for the preparation of the index. The draw- 

 ings for the illustrations were made especially for this work by Mr. 

 Earl L. Poole, of the Reading Public Museum and Art Gallery. 



In these dark days, when even man is fighting to save himself from 

 extinction, let us hope that this book, inspired by a great sportsman 

 and conservationist and written by a great naturalist "whose gentle- 



