BEARS. 389 



* 



The Arctoidea, or ursine division of the Carnivora, includes the 

 bears (Ursidae), weasels (Mustelidae), raccoons (Procyonidas), and the 

 singular panda (Ailurus fulgens), from the Himalaya Mountains, 

 whose connection with the true bears is established by the Thibetan 

 Ailuropus. 



The bears, whose range embraces practically the whole of the 

 continents of North America and Eurasia, comprise some ten or 

 more species, most of which fall under the division Ursus proper. 

 Among the better known of these are the American grizzly (Ursus 

 horribilis), from the Western United States and British Columbia; 

 the circumpolar white or polar bear (U. or Thalassarctos mariti- 

 mus) ; the brown bear (U. arctos), the common species of Europe 

 and Asia, which also appears to be identical with the common 

 American or black bear (U. Americanus), and to which the (Hima- 

 layan) Isabelline and Syrian bears (U. Isabellinus and U. Syriacus) 

 are nearly related; the Japanese bear (U. Japonicus); the Indo- 

 Malaysian sun-bear (U. or Helarctos Malayanus); and the sloth- 

 bear (Melursus labiatus), from India and Ceylon. A solitary species 

 (U. Crowtheri) is found on the African continent (Atlas Mountains), 

 and likewise but a single one in South America, the spectacled 

 bear (Tremarctos ornatus), from the Peruvian and Chilian Andes. 

 The last is, according to Gunther, 132 un distinguishable in its dental 

 characters from a species inhabiting the island of Formosa. 



Two species of bear, the Ursus Arvernensis and U. Etruscus, 

 are known from the Pliocene deposits of Europe, which, with the 

 forms described from the Siwalik Hills, constitute the oldest mem- 

 bers of the genus with which we are acquainted. The complete 

 absence of ursine remains from the American Tertiary deposits 

 would seem to indicate that the existing New World representa- 

 tives of the family were a recent introduction, a supposition 

 strengthened by the discovery of the remains of the grizzly, as a 

 contemporary of the great cave-bear (U. spelseus), in the European 

 Post-Pliocene deposits. Of forms most nearly related to the true 

 bears are Arctotherium (Pliocene or Post-Pliocene of Buenos Ayres) 

 and Hysenarctos (Upper Miocene and Pliocene of Europe and India), 

 which last, by way of Dinocyon and Amphicyon, would seem to 

 effect a direct transition to the dogs. It thus appears that Amphi- 

 cyon lies at the converging point of both family lines. 



The Procyonidae are all members of the New World fauna, and 



