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43

but given recently by Messrs. Audubon and Bachman, [ [[blank space]] ], most of them being new to science".+ It may be stated," he continued in the

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Prof Baird in Institution Rept for 1855, p. 53.
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next year, "that the series of [ North American ] vertibrata is almost complete, very few known species being wanting.  Skins of all the more prominent mammals, as buffalo, elk, deer of five species, antelopes, mountain goats, bighorn or mountain sheep, black, cinnamon, and grizzly bears, wolves, foxes, beaver, badger, otters, prairie dogs, and marmots, peccaries, panther, jaguar, ocelot or tiger cat, lynxes of four species, wolverine or carcajou, &c., are now packed away within the walls of the Smithsonian Institution, ready at any time to be mounted.  All the species interesting to the hunter, the traveller, the farmer, or the man of science can here be [[strikethrough]]found[[/strikethrough]] examined and studied.  The total number of North American species cannot be less than two hundred, exclusive of bats, seals and cetaceans.  Messrs Audubon and Bachman describe about one hundred and fifty North American species of mammals.  This Institution possesses about one hundred and thirty of these; and about fifty additional species have already been detected, although the examination of the entire collection has not yet been completed."+

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Rept for 1856, p. 60.
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As early as 1855 a large exhibition series of the smaller species had been prepared and toward the close of the decade, in 1859, a considerable number of the large forms, - bears, deer, &c., - were mounted and placed before the public.  The exhibition-series also  included the mounted mammals of the U.S. Exploring Exhibition

Transcription Notes:
The text between the dashed lines are clearly supposed to be footnotes, for the "+" marks.