INTBODUCTION 



EXACTLY forty years have elapsed since the publication of 

 the last Catalogue of the specimens of Ungulate, or Hoofed, 

 Mammals in the collection of the Museum namely, Dr. J. E. 

 Gray's "Hand-List of the Edentate, Thick-skinned, and 

 Ruminant Mammals " in which were included not only the 

 animals now classed as Ungulata (in the wider sense of that 

 term), but likewise the members of the orders Edentata and 

 Sirenia. 



During this long period the collection of specimens of 

 Ungulates has so enormously increased, and the systematic 

 classification has been so much altered, that it has been 

 deemed advisable to attempt a systematic and descriptive 

 list of the entire series. For many reasons notably the 

 large bodily size of the majority of the species, the relatively 

 small series of specimens by which many of the species 

 and races are represented, and the fact that specimens 

 very frequently comprise only the head or the skull and 

 horns this is by no means an easy task ; and it should be 

 clearly understood that, under present circumstances, it is 

 impossible to make a Catalogue of these animals comparable, 

 for instance, in the matter of systematic detail and in neat- 

 ness and conciseness of definition, with Dr. Knud Andersen's 

 " Catalogue of Chiroptera," now in course of publication. 

 All that can be done is to record the leading characteristics 

 of the various species, so far as they are at present known, 

 and to leave the completion of the task for the future. 



To render that possible it is essential that a much 

 larger series of complete skins of even the commoner species 

 than is now contained in the collection should be brought 

 together ; and the publication of the present Catalogue may 



