The Zoology of North American Big Game 



little panda {^lurus f id gens) from the Hima- 

 layas, is very suggestive of raccoons, and as forms 

 belonging to this genus inhabited England in Plio- 

 cene times, it is possible that we have pointed out 

 to us here the origin of this, at present, strictly 

 American family; but, on the other hand, evidence 

 is not wanting that they have always been native 

 to the soil and came from a dog-like stock. 



As we have already seen, bears have the same 

 dental formula as dogs, but as they are less car- 

 nivorous, their grinders have flatter surfaces and 

 the sectorials are less sharp ; in fact they have very 

 little of the true sectorial character. It is unusual 

 to find a full set of teeth in adult bears, as some 

 of the premolars invariably drop out. 



It is fully as true of bears as of any other group 

 of large mammals, that our views as to specific dis- 

 tinction are based upon data at present utterly in- 

 adequate, for all the zoological museums of the 

 world do not contain suflicient material for ex- 

 haustive study and comparison. The present writer 

 has examined many of these collections and has no 

 hesitation in admitting that his ideas upon the sub- 

 ject are much less definite than they were ten years 

 ago. It does appear, though, that in North Amer- 

 ica four quite distinct types can be made out. First 

 of these is the circumpolar species, Ursus mari- 



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