Vor. IIT] GRINNELL—MAMMALS OF CALIFORNIA 267 
The “range”’ of each species is given briefly, but as accurately 
as our present state of zoogeographical knowledge makes pos- 
sible. In the case of land mammals, ranges are stated, wher- 
ever practicable, in terms of life-zones and faunal areas.. Exact 
localities are named only where they are believed to mark 
points somewhere near the extreme limits of distribution. Au- 
thorities for the information included in the statement of range 
are always given whenever precise data of any sort are avail- 
able. In all cases where the abbreviation “Mus. Vert. Zool.” 
appears, specimens indicating the stated range, either entirely 
or in part, are contained in the California Museum of Verte- 
brate Zoology. 
The accompanying map of the life-zones of the state has been 
compiled primarily from data on file in the California Museum 
of Vertebrate Zoology. Use has been made also of informa- 
tion from many published botanical papers. Professor Harvey 
M. Hall of the University of California has kindly made a 
number of corrections based upon his knowledge of plant- 
distribution in the state. It is almost superfluous to state here 
that the employment of the life-zone concept in defining ranges 
of animals as well as of plants, owes its beginning to the re- 
searches of the foremost mammalogist of America, C. Hart 
Merriam. It is a matter of credit to him that the farther we 
carry our studies in distribution, the more they align them- 
selves in support of the laws formulated by him. 
The map of the faunal districts of the state is offered not at 
all as a final exposition of this order of distributional be- 
havior, but as a help in designating the ranges of the mammals. 
The boundaries as given are of course merely approximate; 
and even the areas themselves, as here outlined, will doubtless 
receive extensive modification on the basis of further geo- 
graphical study. | 
The present list was concluded to date, in August, 1912. 
Since then appeared Gerrit S. Miller’s important List of North 
American Land Mammals in the United States National 
Museum, 1911 (published December 31, 1912). The writer 
thereupon changed the order in the California list to accord 
with Miller’s, and also made a number of changes in generic 
and family names in accordance with some of the decisions of 
the same authority. 
