Joseph Grinnell

This classic volume actually preceded the Fur Bearing Animals encyclopedia (1937) by nearly twenty years. The original leader of this project that began in 1913, Harold Child Bryant, terminated his post to become the first leader of California Fish & Game. Grinnell was for course a giant in California zoology for having been long time director of the California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology that provided data and specimens to this volume and the Fur Bearing two volume set. These are classic science literature that must be in a Science library.… (meer)

The Museum of Vertebrae Zoology founded by Miss Annie M Alexander in 1908 drew up a prospectus in 1919 that this 1937 Two Volume Set concluded. Thus, this is the first encyclopedia of the California fur bearing animals, and in some ways remains the best. Grinnell was the leader in this effort, spending must time in the field, and developing exacting methods of observation in the period before the modern computer age. These volumes have a color plate drawing of every species, and line drawing of paw prints, jaw lines, and other important anatomical features. Many photos document the habitat. Grinnell documented the decline of many species by counting pelts and carcasses at the marketplace from year to year, then charting by line graph the fate of their disappearance. This volume shows the original habitat of the grizzly bear for example, and follows the data to extinction. Same with the wolf.… (meer)