AN ARRANGEMENT OF THE MAMMALIA. 69 



The great danger to mammalogy at the present time is 

 without doubt the practice on the part of a certain school of 

 descriptive writers on the subject of encouraging an unwarranted 

 specialization in the making of subspecies of mammals. This 

 is deploi'ed by no less conservative and distinguished naturalist 

 than Daniel G. Elliot. Mr. Elliot in the Preface to his work 

 "A Synopsis of the Mammals of North America and the Adja- 

 cent Seas" (1901) says "It is very manifest to many naturalists 

 that too many forms have been given distinctive rank and 

 without doubt a considerable number of the so-called species 

 and subspecies contained in this volume will eventually swell 

 the list of synonyms, abeady sufficiently formadable. 



"In late years there has been an evident inclination among 

 some mammalogists to unduly magnify, as it would seem, trivial 

 dissimilarities observed among their specimens and thus greatly 

 increase the number of slightly differentiated individuals elevated 

 to a separate rank, at the risk of reducing the science to one 

 founded upon labels and localities, instead of distinctive and 

 prominent characters, and thus a knowledge of the place, where, 

 an example was obtained becomes at times of more importance 

 for its identification than are the differences that may separate 

 it from its allies. The lack of resemblances often observed 

 among crania is frequently but the individual variations of a 

 type, and taking these for the characters upon which to establish 

 a new species is apt to lead into error, and not in a few in- 

 stances too much reliance has been placed upon such shght 

 differences. The same may be said of shades of color, and not 

 a few names in this Synopsis have been given to specimens so 

 closely alike, that one author, in speaking of his key which 

 was intended to be the means for distinguishing the species, has 

 been obliged to say: "It will be necessary to have both skins 

 and skulls in hand, and even then it will be impossible to 

 identify some of the forms without actual comparison 



