Preliminarij Si/)iopsis of American Bears. 6*7 



nized is ten : 4 of the Black Bear ,^roup ; 2 of the Grizzly groii}) ; 

 3 of the hi"' Brown bears of Alaska, and the Polar hear. 



In addition to the splendid series of skulls of l)ig bears in our 

 National' Collection and those in m^^ ])rivate collection, I have 

 been fortunate in having a number of others loaned me for study. 

 For these I am indeljted to the courtesy of Mr. Archibald Rogers, 

 of Hyde Park, N. Y., Mr. W. Hallett Phillii)s, of Washington, 

 D. C, and IVfr. John Fannin, Curator of the Provincial Museum 

 at Victoria, British Colund^ia. I wish further to express my ap- 

 preciation of the efforts of Mr. Charles H. Townsend and Mr. J. 

 Stanley-Brown, and also of Mr. Rudolph Neumann, of the Alaska 

 Commercial Company, in securing skulls of big bears from vari- 

 ous points in Alaska. 



The present paper, which is intended merely as a preliminary 

 announcement of results, to be followed later l)y a more com- 

 prehensive treatise on our bears, is based almost wholly on a 

 study of skulls and teeth. INIuch additional material is desired, 

 particularly from northern British Columbia and the coast region 

 of Alaska south of the Alaska peninsula. 



The external characters — color, length and curvature of claws, 

 length of tail and ears, proportions of feet, and so on — are doubt- 

 less of great importance and probably afford many excellent land- 

 marks in difl'erentiating the several species, but unfortunately no 

 series of skins is available for comparison. No museum in the 

 world contains such a series, and any person who will aid in 

 collecting and preserving the necessary material will advance the 

 science of mammalogy. It is known in a general way that the 

 Grizzlies have longer and straighter claws than the big Brown 

 bears of Alaska, and that the animals differ materially in color, 

 but the nature and extent of these differences are unknown. 



The Bears present a surprisingly wide range of individual 

 variation in cranial and dental characters, and the sexes difler 

 greatly in size, the males being much the larger and possessing 

 heavier teeth. The material at my command comprises upwards 

 of 200 skulls, covering all known and several previously unrec- 

 ognized North American species, and has the rare advantage of 

 containing large series from single localities, one such series con- 

 sisting of no less than 95 skulls. These series show that, in ad- 

 dition to sexual variation and the changes in form and size 

 resulting from difference in age, there is a large range of indi- 

 vidual variation in the size, shape, and proportions of the cranium 

 and teeth. Thev show also that this variation, great as it is, has 



