MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 1 83 



Description of Species. — The " coon" may be immediately distinguished 

 from all other of our eastern mammals, large or small, by its club or baton- 

 shaped, cylindrical tail, adorned with alternate black and yellowish gray 

 rings, each about an inch wide. In size and shape he is rather similar to a 

 cub bear 6 months old. The resemblance to the bear in many respects led 

 Linnaeus to put the raccoon in the genus Ursus. His hind feet are planti- 

 grade as in the bear, and make a track like that of a child. He is peculiar 

 in being able to use the forefeet with such dexterity as to resemble the move- 

 ments of the human hand. The face and expression of the coon is foxy, at 

 the same time having some of the elements of the marten, wolverine, and 

 fisher, his near relatives. The general color is coarse grizzled gray with 

 tawny or brownish suffusion of the under fur showing among the longer 

 hairs. 



Measurements. — Total length, 830 mm. (32^) in. ; tail vertebrae 250(9^) ; 

 hind foot, 120 (4}^). 



Family Ursid^ ; Bears. 

 Genus Ursus Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, 1758, vol. i, p. 47. 



East American Black Bear. Ursus Americanus Pallas. 



1780. Ursus atnericanus Pallas, Spicilegia zoologica, fascic, 14, p. 5. 



Type locality : Eastern North America. 



Faunal Distribution. — Hudsonian, Canadian, transition and Austral zones : 

 Hudson Bay and Atlantic Ocean to Georgia ; west to Pacific Ocean and 

 Alaska. 



Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Once uniformly and abundantly repre- 

 sented in every county of the two states. Now almost exterminated in N. J., 

 but occasionally crossing the Delaware from Pa. into Warren and Sussex 

 Cos. An occasional one is seen in the cedar swamps of southern N. J., but 

 not oftener than once or twice in 10 years. In the most densely populated 

 counties of Pa. it is unknown , in about half of those remaining it is found 

 only as a straggler. In parts of the remaining counties it is almost as numer- 

 ous as ever known to have been. In other sections, where deforesting of 

 coniferous woods has been succeeded by scrub oak, chestnut, beech, briars, 

 vines and berry-producing plants, it has increased in numbers and may be 

 said to be abundant. 



Records in Pa. — Bradford Co. — Thomas Leahy was reported to have killed 

 a brown black bear in Bradford Co. in 1882. — Brown. 



Bucks Co. — " One was tracked in snow and chased across country from 

 Bear Swamp, Mercer Co., N. J., in the winter of 1870, through Rocky hill to 



