AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF MAMMALS AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF MAMMALS LIVING AND EXTINCT BY WILLIAM HENRY FLOWER C.B., F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D., P.Z.S., F.L.S., F.G.S., &c. DIRECTOR OF THE NATURAL HISTORY DEPARTMENTS, BRITISH MUSEUM AND RICHARD LYDEKKER B.A., F.G.S., F.Z.S., &c. [Illustration: THE WOOLLY OPOSSUM] LONDON: ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK MDCCCXCI PREFACE One of the greatest difficulties experienced by all who undertake a work of this nature, not professing to be an exhaustive treatise on the subject with which it deals, is to determine the amount of detail desirable to be introduced to meet the requirements of the ordinary student, without rendering it too bulky or costly for general use. The experience of those who endeavour to profit by the book can alone decide how far the authors have succeeded in this respect. It will be observed that in many instances certain better-known or more interesting members of the class have been described at considerable length, while it has been necessary to treat others with much greater brevity. With regard to the references to the literature of the various groups treated of, it has been the endeavour of the authors to make a selection of such memoirs and works as are likely to prove most valuable to the student for the amount of original information which they contain, and more especially of those giving full bibliographical data up to the time of their publication, the repetition of which has been considered unnecessary. In a few instances new generic terms have been introduced to replace some which were already occupied; these have been proposed by Mr. Lydekker, and should be quoted as his. The work is based largely upon the article “Mammalia,” together with forty shorter articles, written by the senior of the two authors for the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. The account of the orders Rodentia, Insectivora, and Chiroptera contributed to the article “Mammalia” by Dr. G. E. Dobson, F.R.S., as well as the articles “Mole,” “Shrew,” and “Vampyre,” by the same writer, the articles “Marmot,” “Mouse,” “Opossum,” “Phalanger,” “Rat,” “Squirrel,” “Stoat,” “Vole,” and others, by Mr. Oldfield Thomas, and likewise the article “Ape,” by Dr. St. G. Mivart, F.R.S., have also been made use of to a greater or less extent. The best thanks of the authors are due to these three gentlemen for freely permitting the incorporation of their own work in the present volume.