50 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
EDITORIAL COMMENT 
The third annual stated meeting of the American Society of Mammalogists 
will be held at the United States National Museum, Washington, D. C., May 2 
to 4, 1921. This is by far the most pleasant season of the year for a visit to 
Washington. The complete success of the second annual meeting in New York 
last spring makes it certain that there will be a large attendance, and a full 
and interesting program, with added social features, is expected. Announce- 
ments giving full particulars will be mailed by the corresponding secretary to 
all members. 
From the suggestions for change of style for the Journal of Mammalogy made 
by members of the Society during the past year, four plans have been approved 
by the committee on publications. These are: (1) Whenever possible the 
descriptions of illustrations shall appear as legends under the plates instead of 
in a special ‘‘explanation of plates.’’ (2) Author’s address shall be printed 
after each regular article or general note. (3) In listing titles under “Recent 
Literature,’’ instead of repeating author’s name, when there are two or more 
titles, use a long dash. (4) Print brief reports of the activities of Sections of 
the American Society of Mammalogists, signed by the secretaries of such sections. 
A full and ready response should be made to Mr. A. B. Howell’s request, in 
the correspondence department of this issue of the Journal, for information 
regarding the private collections of mammals in North America. The statistics 
gathered by such a census will furnish valuable and interesting data. Let every 
member of the Society and reader of the Journal who has a study collection of 
mammal skins and skulls, no matter how small or how local it may be, write to 
Mr. Howell at once. The editor would suggest that the census be not restricted 
to private collections, but include all collections in universities, museums, and 
public institutions as well. The more information that is given regarding the 
extent and scope of each collection the more useful will Mr. Howell’s final report 
be to all, and most of the members of the Society will be interested in knowing 
something of the size of our larger American collections, as well as what regions 
they particularly cover. 
Many libraries nowadays bind scientific serial publications with all the covers 
in place. Those who do much work with bound volumes of journals appreciate 
the many advantages of this system and always encourage its use. The colored 
covers of heavier paper help one to find the initial page of the number or part 
one wishes to cite, and they make more readily accessible the date of publication 
of any particular page. It was a common practice at one time to destroy the orig- 
inal covers when the parts were assembled for binding, and in many an old volume 
the lack of these covers is now a distinct loss. The later idea of binding the 
covers at the back was a step in the right direction, and the modern idea of leav- 
ing each brochure intact, exactly as received, is a still greater improvement. 
With this idea in mind the Journal of Mammalogy will issue the title page for 
each volume as a separate sheet, to be mailed with the first number of the suc- 
ceeding volume. The index for the entire year will be printed in its proper place 
