The Yellow Bear of Louisiana. 140 



quence, the fact remaining that Griffith's IJrsiis luteolvswas based 

 primarily upon the Louisiana animal — figured by Major Ham- 

 ilton Smith; hence his name must hold for the species if it is 

 found distinct from the connnon black bear of the eastern 

 United States {Ursiis (tmerlcanus). 



When engaged upon a revision of the North American bears 

 some time ago I was struck by certain cranial and dental pecu- 

 liarities possessed by five skulls^'" from Prairie Mer Rouge, More- 

 house parish, Louisiana, which led me to regard the species as 

 very distinct from the two species now commonly recognized as 

 inhaljiting the United States, namely, Ursus amcricanus Pallas 

 and U. horrlbilis Ord. Owing to the absence of skins of this 

 animal, and the rather scanty material illustrative of several 

 other points concerned in a proper elaboration of the group, 

 publication of the review in question was deferred. The recent 

 appearance of an article by Mr. Arthur p]rwin Brown,t superin- 

 tendent of the Zoological Garden at Pliiladelphia, in which this 

 remarkable bear is in part described, though wrongly referred, 

 makes it desirable to issue a preliminary description of the spe- 

 cies, based on the meager material now in hand. The following 

 description is based wholly on the skulls from Mer Rouge, Lou- 

 isiana, of which No. 1155 may ])e regarded as the type. 



Cranial Characters. — Skull long and flat; fronto-parietal re- 

 gion depressed ; profile of top of skull (including crest) nearly a 

 straight line; sagittal crest long and high, about half the length 

 of upper side of skull in old age. C'ontrasted with old skulls of 

 male black bears from the Adirondacks, in northern New York, 

 the three old male skulls from Mer Rouge. Louisiana, differ uni- 

 formly in the following particulars : They are longer and flatter ; 

 the occipito-sphenoid length X is greater; the distance from fora- 

 men magnum to plane of front of last U})per molar is greater ; the 

 ratio of zygomatic breadth to basilar length is less ; the ratio of 

 postpalatal length § to occipito-sphenoid length is considerably 

 greater. 



* These skulls have been in the United States National Museum manj'- 

 years and sonie of their peculiarities wei-e mentioned by Baird in his 

 great work on the Mammals of North America in 1857. 



t Forest and Stream, New York, Dec. 16, ISO.'], 518-519. 



X Occipito-sijhenoid length — distance from anterior Up of foramen mag- 

 num to suture between basisphenoid and presphenoid. 



? Post-palatal length — distance from anterior lip of f(jramen magnum to 

 post-palatal notcli. 



