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Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they
are listed at the end of the text.
* * * * *
THE
CAMBRIDGE NATURAL HISTORY
EDITED BY
S. F. HARMER AND A. E. SHIPLEY
* * * * *
VOLUME X
MAMMALIA
by F. BEDDARD
Reprint Edition
_1958_
CODICOTE, ENGLAND WHELDON & WESLEY, LTD.
WEINHEIM, GERMANY H. R. ENGELMANN (J. CRAMER)
NEW YORK HAFNER PUBLISHING CO.
(c) 1902, by Macmillan & Co., Limited
Authorized reprint by
Wheldon & Wesley, Ltd. and H. R. Engelmann (J. Cramer)
Printed in Germany
* * * * *
{iii}
PREFACE
Inasmuch as Sir W. H. Flower and Mr. Lydekker could not profess to treat
the Mammalia exhaustively within the limits of nearly 800 pages, in their
_Introduction to the Study of Mammals_, it is obvious that the present
volume, which appears ten years later and is of rather less size, can
contain but a selection of the enormous mass of facts at the disposal of
the student of this group. Thus the chief question for myself was what to
select and what to leave aside. It will be observed that I have reduced the
pages of this book to conformity with those of other volumes of the series
by treating some groups more briefly than others. It has appeared to me to
be desirable to treat fully such groups as the Edentata and the
Marsupialia, and permissible to be more brief in dealing with such huge
Orders as those of the Rodentia and Chiroptera. Lengthy disquisitions upon
such familiar and comparatively uninteresting animals as the Lion and
Leopard have been curtailed, and the space thus saved has been devoted to
shorter and more numerous accounts of other creatures. As there are nearly
six hundred genera of living Mammals known to science, omission as well as
compression became an absolute necessity. I have given, I hope, adequate
treatment from the standpoint of a necessarily limited treatise to the
majority of the more important genera of Mammals both living and extinct;
but the length of this part of the book had to be increased by the
discoveries, which give me at once an advantage and a disadvantage as
compared with the two authors whose names I have quoted, of a considerable
number of important new types in the last ten years. {iv} Such forms as
_Notoryctes_, _Romerolagus_, _Caenolestes_, "_Neomylodon_," and _Ocapia_
could not possibly have been omitted.
In preparing my accounts of both living and extinct forms I have nearly
invariably consulted the original authorities, and have often supplemented
or verified these accounts by my own dissections at the Zoological
Society's Gardens. My rule has not, however, been invariable in this
matter, inasmuch as there exist two recent and trustworthy text-books of
Mammalian Palaeontology--Professor Zittel's _Handbuch der Palaeontologie_,
and Dr. A. Smith Woodward's manual, _Outlines of Vertebrate Palaeontology_,
in the Cambridge Biological Series. Where the name of a genus only or its
range, or merely one or two facts about it, are mentioned, I have not
thought it necessary to go further than these two works. But a good deal
has been done even since the appearance of these two volumes which it will
be found that I have not ignored.
I have to thank my editors for the trouble which they have taken in the
revision of the proofs and for many suggestions. To Professor Osborn, of
Columbia University, New York, I am indebted for some kind suggestions. My
daughter Iris has assisted me in various ways. Finally, I desire to express
my indebtedness to Mr. Dixon and to Mr. M. P. Parker for the care which
they have taken in the preparation of the figures which were drawn by them
especially for this work.
FRANK E. BEDDARD.
LONDON, _February 28, 1902_.
* * * * *
{v}
CONTENTS
Page
PREFACE iii
SCHEME OF THE CLASSIFICATION ADOPTED IN THIS BOOK ix
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY 1