LIST OF NOETH AMERICAN LAND MAMMALS IN THE 

 UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1911. 



By Gerrit S. Miller, Jr., 



Curator, Division of Mammals, United States National Museum. 



The collection of North American mammals in the United States 

 National Museum numbers about 120,000 specimens, including 

 1,135 types. More than five-sixths of this material is in the Bio- 

 logical Survey collection, United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture,^ the remainder, containing all of the older, more historic 

 specimens, is in the Museum proper. The material derived from 

 these two sources furnishes so complete a representation of the 

 mammals of North America that of the 2,138 forms now^ recognized 

 less than 200 are not included. 



In preparing this list, with the object of making it fulfill its double 

 purpose, the following plan has been adopted. In 1885 ^ Dr. F. W. 

 True published "A Provisional List of the Mammals of North and 

 Central America and the West Indian Islands," a summary of the 

 North American mammal fauna as then known. To the species 

 included in it are added those since recognized, the status of which at 

 the end of the year 1911 had not been questioned in some recent work 

 of definite monographic character, where full synonymy and refer- 

 ences may readily be consulted. Forms in regard to whose standing 

 there is difference of opinion, but which have not been treated in 

 such a monographic paper, are included; but in cases of this kind 

 references are given to the conflicting views. An asterisk is placed 

 before the name of each form represented in the national collection. 



' The number of specimens entered in the catalogues of this collection up to the end of December, 1911, is 

 107,517. This material, brought together wholly by the activities of the Biological Survey, belongs accord- 

 ing to act of Congress (sundry civil act of Mar. 3, 1879), to the United States National Museum. By the 

 same authority it is maintained as a separate collection pending investigations by members of the survey. 

 The vFording of the act is as follows: "And all collections of rocks, minerals, soils, fossils, and objects of 

 natural history, archeology, and ethnology, made by the Coast and Interior Survey, the Geological Survey, 

 or by any other parties of the Government of the United States, when no longer needed for the investigations 

 in progress, shall be deposited in the National Museum." 



» The number known in 1S85 was 363; in 1900 this had been increased to about 1,450. (See Miller and 

 Rehn, Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 30, p. 1, Dec. 27, 1901.) 



» Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 7, 1S84, pp. 587-611 (appendix). 1SS5. 



43900°— Bull. 79—12 1 1 



