226 U. Ss. P. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS—ZOOLOGY—GENERAL REPORT. 
F. Coy. Suppl. Buff. I, Mamm. 1831, 352. 
Waener, Suppl. Schreb. II, 1841, 141.—Is. in Schreber Siugt. III, pl. exli, B. (No text.) 
Dexay, N. Y. Zool. I, 1842, 24, pl. vi, f. 1. < 
Aup. & Bacn. N. A. Quad. III, 1853, 187; pl. exli. 
Max von Wiep & Mayer, Verh. K. L. C. Akad. der Naturf. XXVI, 1857, (?) 41; pl. v. Skull. 
Ursus niger, americanus, Grirr. Cuy. V, 1827, 112. 
Black bear, Penn. Hist. Quad. 1781, No. 174.—Is. Arctic Zoology, I, 1784, 57. 
Ours noir d’Amerique, St. Hiraire, Cuv. Hist. Nat. des Mamm. II, 1819. Plate. 
Sr. Cu.—Size small. Feet moderate. Fore claws not twice as long as the hinder. Color entirely uniform throughout, 
either black or brownish; the hairs darkest towards the tips. 
No perfect specimens of the American black bear have been collected by any of the expeditions, 
although Dr. Newberry brought in a large robe, procured in Oregon. In this the hairs are 
long and rather soft, without any wool between their bases. The color is a lustrous black, with 
a slight tinge of brownish near the roots, the difference is, however, scarcely appreciable. 
The hair of the black bear is much softer than that of the grizzly, and in the skins examined 
lacks the wiry wool seen among the roots of the long staple in the grizzly. 
Skull.—The specimen selected as the type of the skull in this species is No. 897, from St. 
Lawrence county, New York. The sex is unmarked. The molar teeth are unworn, and the 
age may be three or four years. The sagittal crest is quite distinct over the posterior half of 
the parietal bone; it then sinks down, and the temporal crests proceed forward, diverging so 
that their inner edges are separated at the coronal suture by about half an inch. 
The outline of the skull above in profile is a gentle curve from the termination of the sagittal 
elevated crest to the beginning of the anterior third of the nasal ; the rest of the profile, at the 
extremities of this single curve, passes off in a gentle convexity and more horizontally. The 
curve forms quite a perfect arc of a circle, (a little more convex on the posterior half,) the chord 
of which measures about 7 inches, the ordinate, one. There is very little, if any, depression 
of the skull along the central line, the line of profile view coinciding almost exactly with it. 
The skull is entirely flat or plane above, (except a very little rising along the temporal crests,) 
as far as the middle of the frontal bone; there is then a slight swelling, and beyond this the 
bone rounds rapidly off to the orbital process and the edge of the orbits; but a central area 
continues flat to the end. The transverse outline between the points of the orbital processes 
exhibits a shallow concavity in the centre, and a rapid rounding at the extremities. 
The outline from above shows the width between the zygomata to be 0.573 of the total 
length. The distance from the anterior point of the molar to the end of the muzzle, measured 
parallel to the axis of the head, is 0.332 the total length ; the least width between the orbits is 
0.22 of this same length ; that between the points of the orbits is 0.439 of the same length. 
The lower jaw is heavy and massive. The coronoid process is broad, the anterior and upper 
edge curving round to meet the moderately concave posterior outline at a rather obtuse angle. 
There is, however, no appearance of a hook. 
The molars are of moderate size, the posterior lower one with the outline slightly oval, the 
anterior larger and flattened, the transverse diameter three-fourths the length of the longitudinal. 
A younger animal from Pennsylvania has somewhat the same general characters, except that 
the profile curve of the forehead is less regular, and indeed is nearly straight on the anterior 
half. The coronoid process is considerably lower, and the posterior outline passes considerably 
more forwards, so that a perpendicular line, instead of falling on the anterior base of the condyle, 
would pass considerably in advance. 
4 
