220 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1897. 



41. TTrsus americanus Pallas. American Black Bear. 



Several bears are trapped every year in ceutral Pennsylvania, 

 and some of these generally reach the Philadelphia market during 

 the winter. It is a good rule that where one finds the Virginia 

 Deer there are pretty sure to be some bears, and where the former 

 are exterminated the bears are very scarce or never seen. 



There is probably not a county coming within the scope of this 

 paper, in which the black bear has been completely exterminated. 

 They are, perhaps, more numerous in the counties surrounding 

 Clinton County than elsewhere. Seth I. Nelson and his son concur in 

 the belief that bears have been more numerous in the past 15 years 

 than before that time, the clearing of the evergreen timber and in- 

 crease of brush land and deciduous forests being to their advantage- 

 About the year 1883 the junior Nelson killed 7 bears in East Keat- 

 ing Township, Clinton County, alone. In 1893 he killed 4. I ex- 

 amined the pelts of several recently taken by Mr. R. W. Bennett, 

 near Eaglesmere, where they also seem to be numerous. 



42. TJrocyon cinereoargenteus (Mull.). Northern Gray Fox. 



Though very rare in the mountains of the northern tier of counties, 

 this species may be said to visit every township in the state. It is 

 probable that this statement could not have been made 20 years ago, 

 but the destruction of the forests in this, as in other cases, has made 

 possible such an extension of the range of the gray fox into the once 

 undisputed habitat of the red fox. 



Regarding the dexterity of this species in climbing trees the junior 

 Nelson told me he had seen one ascend after a squirrel to the height 

 of 60 feet on an erect dead pine stripped of its bark. It did this 

 voluntarily, literally "shinning" 25 feet up the branchless trunk 

 and backing down again, as a boy would do it. He has known 

 his dogs to run them up an erect-tree 18 inches in diameter, the 

 first limb of which was 20 feet from the ground. 



43. Vulpes pennsylvanicus (Bodd.). Bed Fox. 



More abundant in the mountains, but found more or less numer- 

 ously in all localities beyond the limits of towns and cities. 



44. Canis nubilus Say. Northern American Wolf. 



The following notes seem to indicate that the wolf has never been 

 wholly exterminated in Pennsylvania, but that there yet exist some 

 of these wary rovers of the wilderness, to attest the theory that no 

 country where the Virginia deer remain is free from their incursions. 



