FAUNA AMERICANA. 47 



lines ; of the hind feet, eight inches four lines. 

 (They vary in size from three to five feet.) 



Description. (Alpine brown bear, adult.) Body 

 entirely covered with very thick hair, long and 

 rather soft, generally of a chesnut brown, deep on 

 the shoulders, the back, thighs, and legs, and 

 glazed with yellow on the sides of the head to 

 the ears, and on the flanks ; hair of the feet short 

 and nearly black, as well as that on the snout, 

 which is nevertheless in some degree browner ; 

 soles of the hind feet proportionally shorter than 

 those of the white bear, and longer than those of 

 the black bear, entirely naked, and marked by 

 four folds which correspond to the divisions of 

 the fingers, which are separated from the sole, 

 properly speaking, by hairs, each finger being 

 furnished with an elliptical tubercle ; anterior half 

 only of the fore feet naked, and provided poste- 

 riorly with a naked tubercle, surrounded with 

 hair; naked part of the hand marked by three 

 folds, two of which correspond to two internal 

 fingers, and the third circumscribes the part 

 which relates to the two external ; fingers furnish- 

 ed with elliptical tubercles like those of the toes, 

 the middle one being in all cases the longest, and 

 the others diminishing gradually ; nails strong and 

 cutting ; eye small ; iris brown ; nostrils opening 

 before a glandular muzzle, and passing to the 

 sides, curved upwards in form of a slit; ears Avith 

 an external concha, very simple and rounded; 



