November, 1919] 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



87 



of knowledge even of an elementary kind regard- 

 ing their habits. 



Intimate knowledge of the furbearers was left 

 largely to the trapper, whose interest usually did not 

 extend beyond the means of outwitting the animal 

 during the trapping season, putting its pelt on the 

 stretcher or drying-board, and increasing his own 

 personal fur-return for the time being. As the fur- 

 bearers have become reduced in numbers, and the 

 prices of fur have increased, the importance of the 

 fur industry to the country is becoming recognized; 

 measures of conservation are being proposed, and 

 fur-farms are being started, the practical success 

 of which depends largely upon the application of a 

 knowledge of life-histories or habits of the animals 

 which are to be reared. 



Many species of animals which have no direct 

 economic value as food or for their fur, or skins, 

 are nevertheless often of enormous indirect import- 

 ance, and must be recognized as beneficial, or means 

 taken to combat them as detrimental to the interests 

 of man. Rats, mice, ground squirrels, etc., have 

 been recognized as carriers of trichinae and the 

 germs of bubonic plague, anthrax, and other dis- 

 eases. Ground squirrels, prairie dogs, pouched 

 gophers, and other rodents have caused such ex- 

 tensive damage to grain-fields, running into millions 

 of dollars annually in some parts of the country, as 

 to make necessary concerted action by the govern- 

 ment and by associations of individual farmers. 

 Rabbits, hares, voles (field-mice), and the like 

 frequently cause great damage to fruit trees and 

 young forest trees. Coyotes, wolves, and moun- 

 tain lions take a large toll of the sheep, cattle, and 

 horse-raising industries, and thousands of dollars 

 had been expended in indiscriminate bounties with- 

 out commensurate results until systematic study of 

 these carnivorous pests pointed a way for their prac- 

 tical elimination in many districts. 



The ravages of "The house rat, the most destruc- 

 tive animal in the world," are given by Lantz 

 (Yearbook of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, 1917), from studies made by the 

 Biological Survey in 1908, as amounting to actual 

 losses in produce and other property in one year in 

 the two cities of Washington and Baltimore, of 

 $400,000 and $700,000 respectively, the sums be- 

 ing nearly in ratio to the population. In the same 

 report he quotes a recent statement cf the Women's 

 Municipal League of Boston to the effect that losses 

 from the rats in that city amounted to $1,350,000 

 annually. Losses in Pittsburg, Pa., have been 

 estimated at over $1,000,000 a year, and no doubt 

 the present values of produce would greatly in- 

 crease these estimates. 



While the study of the living animal is of as 



great interest and attractiveness to the naturalist as 

 any other branch of natural history and has conse- 

 quently an aesthetic and sentimental value, it can 

 be shown to have a very practical value? also. As 

 Professor Herbert Osborn says: "Not a single farm 

 product but is affected directly or indirectly by some 

 animal activity." 



Dr. Taylor, in his recent paper, states that the 

 leading museums have been acquiring exhibits and 

 studying material representatives of different groups 

 of birds and mammals, until at present the American 

 collections are in many respects unsurpassed by those 

 of any other country in the world, and that the rela- 

 tive completeness of research collections permits in- 

 creased attention to be paid to the study of life- 

 histories. 



It is, of course, well recognized that species closely 

 resembling each other often have quite different 

 habits, and to avoid misapprehension and confusion 

 of records we must have a certain amount of 

 systematic taxonomic study before detailed investiga- 

 tions can be made along other lines. Valuable 

 observations may be made without drawing the lines 

 of differentiation too finely, but in general, we must 

 learn the names of cur animals before we can write 

 about them. In other words, we must have pegs 

 on which to hang our observations, if they are to be 

 of value. 



Unfortunately, we must admit that there is not 

 in Canada today any collection of mammals ap- 

 proaching in completeness, even in Canadian species, 

 several collections in the United States, among which 

 may be mentioned the Biological Survey and the 

 United States National Museum of Washington, 

 the American Museum of Natural History of New 

 York, the Museum of Comparative Zoology of 

 Cambridge, and possibly two or three others. Many 

 American zoologists have worked in Canada for 

 the enrichment of American museums, and Cana- 

 dian naturalists have done intensive work in many 

 districts, but many regions of Canada have even yet 

 been little worked in the field of mammalogy. 



The development of a national collection of the 

 mammals of Canada, as well as of other forms of 

 animal life, should be of interest to all Canadians. 

 Such a collection is useful as a place of reference 

 for students from all parts of the country, and a 

 permanent repository for specimens of many species 

 which may ultimately become extinct. In addition 

 to the national collection, represented by the Vic- 

 toria Memorial Museum, under the Geological 

 Survey, of the Department of Mines, each province 

 should have a representative collection of the mam- 

 mals and other vertebrates found within its borders. 

 The private collector has a field of his own for 

 investigation and experiment which should be en- 



