Abstract
OF late attention has frequently been called in scientific journals to that rapid multiplication of nominal species of mammals which forms one of the most striking features of the systematic zoology of the last few years. To take an extreme instance: In eastern Europe and northern Asia there exists a pretty little rodent allied to the squirrels, and forming the single Old World representative of the genus Tamias. Until quite recently this creature was supposed to be common to North America, and was generally known as the Asiatic Chipmunk (T. asiaticus); and it is not many years ago that a well-known American zoologist fully recognised the specific identity of the eastern and western forms. Soon afterwards, that very same writer not only separated the American from the Asiatic race, but considered that the former constituted more than a score of distinct species ! To take another example. The coyoté, or prairie wolf, has been very generally recognised as constituting a well-marked species distinguished from the ordinary wolf, not only by its inferior size, but by differences of colour and pelage. During the present year Dr. C. H. Merriam, the well-known Government zoologist of the United States, has, however, thought proper to split up the coyoté into a number of what he regards as distinct species. And it may be added that he has done the same for the brown and grizzly bears of his own continent, and also for those of north-eastern Asia.
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LYDEKKER, R. Species or Subspecies?. Nature 56, 256–258 (1897). https://doi.org/10.1038/056256a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/056256a0