American Black Bear 429 



the subject may reter to the excellent paper on North American bears 

 by Dr. Merriam in vol. x. of the Proceedings of the Biological Society of 

 Washington (1896). 



There are several local forms of black bear in America which are 

 regarded by the writer last mentioned and most other American zoologists 

 as entitled to rank as distinct species. Here, however, they are classed 

 as local phases of a single widely-spread species. 



Regarded in this manner, JJrsus americanus has a much more extensive 

 geographical range in its native country than U. arcti/s, having originally 

 been found all over North America from Labrador and Canada to the 

 Gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. By the 

 advance of civilisation this vast range has, however, been greatly curtailed, 

 and the black bear has been exterminated from many districts where it 

 was once a common animal. Among the districts where it is still to 

 be met with more or less abundantly are the mountains south of the 

 St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, the country east of the Mississippi, and 

 the less settled parts of the valley of that river and its tributaries. Some 

 likewise linger in the thickets of the valleys of the Colorado, Trinity, and 

 Brazor rivers. On the Yukon they are still abundant, as they also seem to 

 be in some parts of Labrador. Li Minnesota, according to Mr. C. L. 

 Herrick,^ the species is likewise abundant at the present day, and is often 

 offered tor sale in Minneapolis, where the value of a skin varies from 

 ten to fifteen dollars ; all from this locality appear to belong to the typical 

 black variety. It may be added that the males of this species largely 

 exceed the females in point of size. 



So iar as can be ascertained, the American black bear is nearly allied 

 to the Himalayan black bear {U. torqiiatiis) and the Japanese black bear 

 {JJ. japoniciis)^ from the former of which it differs by the absence of the 

 white crescent-shaped gorget on the chest. If this be so, it was probably 



' Mtimmah of Minnesotii, p. 146 (1892). 



