PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
Vor wlit, pp. 265-390, pls, 15, 16 Aucust 28, 1913 
A DISTRIBUTIONAL LIST OF THE MAMMALS OF 
CALIFORNIA 
BY JOSEPH GRINNELL 
Director of the California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology 
The compilation of the following list of the mammals of 
California has proved well worth while as a help in work with 
the collections in the California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. 
It is believed that its publication now will find justification in 
its resulting usefulness in other ways—wherever, in fact, a 
clue to the described species is desired. The literature of the 
subject is widely scattered, and an index to it, so far as Cali- 
fornia is concerned, has been practically wanting. The present 
contribution is intended to meet, in part at least, this need. 
It must be urged upon the casual enquirer that, at the pres- 
ent stage in the systematic study of California mammals, the 
status of the various forms as here given can in scarcely any 
case be accepted as final. Only a few genera have been given 
critical study upon the basis of material at all satisfactory. 
Osgood’s Revision of the Mice of the American Genus Pero- 
myscus (1909) may be cited as the best example of such mono- 
graphic treatment. Not until each group has been subjected 
to similar analysis, and especially so with regard to limited 
areas such as that comprised within the state of California, can 
the status and distribution of the more slightly differentiated 
forms be considered as satisfactorily established. 
In including species and subspecies, the writer has in the 
great majority of cases followed the conclusions of the original 
describers. Where genera have been formally revised, the de- 
August 26, 1913. 
