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Annual Mcport of tbe JReto jBotfc Zoological 



THE ORIGIN AND RELATIONSHIP OF THE 

 LARGE MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA 



BY MADISON GRANT 



SECRETARY OF THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



The increase of knowledge of the true relationship of mam- 

 mals, and their geographical distribution, has now reached a point 

 where it is possible to analyze the mammalian fauna of North 

 America, and to indicate the continent where the original ex- 

 pansion and radiation of the various groups took place. Paleon- 

 tology has, of recent years, shed a flood of light upon this s'ub- ' ' 

 ject, and offers, in many instances, definite p'ropj;\of v/h&t 'tyi&t,' ' 

 heretofore been largely conjecture. 



It is the purpose of this article to briefly review the living 

 large mammals of the United States and Canada, and to en- 

 deavor to trace their past history. 



The higher fauna of North America, when compared with that 

 of other large continents, presents an astonishing poverty, as to 

 the number both of genera and of species, and the latter are, in 

 the great majority of cases, very closely allied to Old World 

 forms. 



The animals which the first settlers found along the Atlantic 

 coast seemed almost identical with those they had left behind 

 in England or orr the adjoining continent. This resemblance 

 was very close in the North, but in. the South a larger number 

 of unfamiliar forms were found. As the seventeenth and eigh- 

 teenth centuries were not ages of scientific accuracy in matters 

 zoological, names were applied at random, just as was done by 

 the Dutch settlers in South Africa, with the result that many a 

 misfit occurred, and the same animal bore distinct names in dif- 

 ferent sections of the country. 



