vi PREFACE. 



its position in the front rank of the great world-embracing Institutions 

 devoted to the scientific study of Natural History, and whose influence 

 is felt and recognized throughout the earth. In the exhibition of 

 mammals much attention, and, it may be added space also, has been 

 given to groups, and specimens of single species of different ages and 

 sexes have been brought together and placed in a miniature land- 

 scape of the country in which they once dwelt. Their environment 

 was thus the natural one. When practicable this is the most satis- 

 factory method of exhibiting specimens ; but it is limited, for no matter 

 how large the museum building may be, only a very small portion of a 

 collection could be so arranged, and if continued to any excess, other 

 and equally important exhibits could not be shown. Mounting 

 specimens in groups, therefore, must from sheer necessity be always 

 limited. 



Every example in the Museum that has passed through the 

 Author's hands is contained in this Catalogue, together with all the 

 information possessed regarding it; commencing with the sex, 

 whether collected, purchased, presented, or exchanged, followed by 

 the locality in which it was taken, the person or institution from 

 which it was procured, ending with the name of the collector. The 

 signs and abbreviations used are: c?, male; ?, female; Coll., 

 collected; P., purchased; Pres., presented; and Exch., exchanged. 

 The arrangement is that of the Check-List of Mammals of the North 

 American Continent and West Indies, as far as that work goes, viz.: 

 for the mammals of the North American fauna, the exotic species 

 being relegated to their various positions in accordance with the 

 system of classification adopted by the Author. One species is 

 described, a bat, Uroderma validiim, on page 538, the discovery that 

 the specimens represented a new form having been made too late for 

 the Author to avail himself of any of the usual channels of publica- 

 tion and include it at the same time in the present work. 



In conclusion, it gives me much pleasure to acknowledge my 

 indebtedness to Mr. W. J. Gerhard, Assistant Curator of Entomology, 

 for his valuable aid in reading the proofs as the work passed through 

 the press, and also for constructing the index, in which task con- 

 siderable help was rendered by my assistant, Mr. E. B. Chope. 



D. G. E. 

 December. 1906. 



