Recent Progress in the Study of 

 North American Mammals. 



By J. A. Allen. 



Three years since I presented a paper to the New 

 York Academy of Sciences on " Recent Work in North 

 x\merican Mammalogy," 1 giving a brief review of the prin- 

 cipal works relating to North American Mammals, and 

 dwelling in some detail upon the history of the subject 

 from the year 1852 to the year 1890, comparing and con- 

 trasting the methods, the results, and the resources of the 

 three periods into which these four decades may be divided. 

 The concluding paragraph of this paper may be here 

 quoted as a fitting introduction to the present article, as 

 follows : '* While, ten or twelve years ago, it was commonly 

 supposed that comparatively little remained to be learned 

 respecting the mammals of North America, beyond a few 

 details regarding their distribution and habits, we are now 

 little less than awed by the evident extent of our ignorance 

 of the subject, as shown by the astonishing discoveries of 

 the last four or five years, and recognize the obvious ne- 

 cessity of a careful revision of the whole field" (1. c, p. 84). 

 The results of the work of the last three years show 

 that this statement, though a surprise to those unfamiliar 

 with the then recent developments, was none too strong. 



While this paper will relate mainly to the work of the 

 last five years, it is desirable, for a proper understanding of 



'Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci., Vol. X., 1891, pp. 71-85. 



