Preliminary Sjjnopsis of American Bears. 71 



and also by the smaller size of the first upper and last lower 

 molars. The difference in the posterior ending of the ascending 

 arm of the premaxilla also furnishes a good average character. 

 In the Kadiak bear the premaxillee rarely reach more than half 

 way up the vertical height of the orbit, while in the Kamschatka 

 animal they usually reach consideraljly more than half way. 

 The shape of the zygomatic arch as seen from the side differs in 

 the two. In the Kadiak bear it is more highly arched and 

 broader, especially posteriorly. The difference is more marked 

 in the young than in adults. 



The claws of the fore feet of Ursiis middcndorffi are long and 

 rather strongly decurved on the distal third. Those of the 

 Grizzly {Ursus horrihilis) are still longer and much straighter. 

 The longest claw of an old male middcndorffi killed at Kadiak 

 Island, June 18, 1894, and measured for me by Mr. B. J. Brether- 

 ton, measured over the convexity of the claw 96 mm., while the 

 distance in a straight line from base to tip on the under side was 

 only 74 mm. 



I have named this bear in honor of the celeljrated Russian 

 naturalist, Dr. A. Th. von Middendorff, in recognition of his early 

 struggles with the large bears of the shores of Bering Sea. INIid- 

 dendorff named the big bear of Kamschatka Ursus hcrirKjinva;^ 

 and stated tliat he was particularly struck witli a skull from 

 Kadiak which was distinguished l)y its su})erior size. It seems 

 fit that the great Kadiak Ijear, proving distinct from the Kam- 

 schatka animal, should perpetuate Middendorff 's name. I have 

 examined 16 skulls of this bear. 



Ursus dalli sp. nov. Yakutat Bear. 

 PI. V, fig. 1 ; pi. VI, lig. 5. 



Tijpe fi-oiii Yakutat Bay, Alaska, No. 7504S, r^ old, IJ. S. Nat. Museum, 

 Dept. Agriculture coll. Collected Sept. 8, lSt)5, by the chief of the Yaku- 

 tat Indians. (Procured through Albin Johnson. Original No. 2.) 



Characters. — Size huge, only slightly less ihan the Kadiak bear; skull 

 long and massive; frontals rather flat and only slightly elevated above 

 orbits ; postorbital processes strongly developed and decurved in old age ; 

 paroccipital processes very large and heavy, but relatively short. Molari- 

 form teeth large and heavy ; pm * extraordinarily large and high, nearly 

 as broad as long, quadrituberculate (an accessory cusp on inner side in 

 front of postero-internal cusp) ; m ^ much as in the Grizzlies, the inter- 



*Ur.ms arctos var. beringkma Middendorff, Untersuchungen an Schiideln 

 des gemeinen Landbiiren, p. 74, 1851. 



