APPENDIX. 29 



tnomeus Aud. & Bach."* Mr. Arthur Erwin Brown gives a resume of 

 the relationships of the North American Bears to each other and to those 

 of Europe, deciding finally that Ursus arctos should stand as the type, 

 isabellinus, syriacus, horribilis, cinnamomeus and americanus being only 

 subspecifically distinct therefrom. A strong consensus of opinion to-day 

 is largely in agreement with this view. Nevertheless it is a patent fact 

 that a trustworthy, representative series of skins, with accompanying 

 skulls and full data, of these bears does not exist in all the museums of 

 of the world, nor is it likely that they will be secured for many years to 

 come. Until such a collection shall have been made, the verdict cannot 

 be final, though it is likely that it will closely approximate the conclu- 

 sions of Mr. Brown. 



The case of the American and European Wolves is a parallel one, and 

 we must confess that the affinities between many New and Old World 

 forms of the North Temperate Carnivora indicate a specialization so per- 

 fectly fitted for resisting the normal influence of environment, and at 

 the same time permit a range of local and individual variation so great, 

 that the common rules of classification fail to assign them a permanent 

 place in nomenclature. 



It should be stated that the type specimen and given habitat of the 

 cinnamomum of Audubon and Bachman indicate, with considerable 

 certainty, that it is identical with Ord's horribilis as now defined, and 

 that Mr. Brown's brown and yellow Bears are nothing more nor less than 

 the "brown" and "white"t Bears which continually harassed the west- 

 ward march of Lewis and Clark from the Mandan villages to the eastern 

 slopes of the Rocky Mountains This is corroborated by the description 

 of a skull of a "brown bear" killed on the Missouri ^up. cit. p. 307) which 

 mentions the "sharp projection of the centre of the frontal bone" and 

 the great thickness of the skull, as defined by Mr. Brown for his cin- 

 namomeus. The evidence, so far as I can sum it, makes cinnamomum 

 a pure synonym of horribilis. 



The Californian Grizzly is thought by some to represent a type sub- 

 specifically distinct from that of the Missouri Valley. Should this be 

 agreed to, the only applicable existing name is horri&us, applied by Baird 

 (Mex. Bdry. Surv., 1859, 24) to a small Sonoran form which he thought 

 differed from the Grizzly of northern California. If possible, this name 

 should be retained in preference to giving a new one. 



The Ursus luteolus, Griffith, revived by Dr. Merriam (Proc. Biol. Soc. 

 Wash., 1893, 147) seems not identical with the yellow Bears of Mr. 

 Brown's paper; its affinities seem to be closer to americanus than to 

 horribilis, forming, indeed, another link in the mysterious chain which 

 makes our most honest attempts to classify these Bears appear more 

 hopeless than ever.J 



Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1894, 119. t "brown gray" Gass' Jour. 



; I consider Ursut americanus a good species in any case. 



