External Characters of the Bears. 379 



lip itself showed hardly any vertical groove. These diffe- 

 rences may be merely individual. 



My figure of the rhinarium of Helarctos malayanus, 

 published in 1914, was taken from a dried skin and very 

 imperfect. In the fresh specimen examined, the rhinarium 

 (fig. 1, A, B) from the front resembles in a general way that 

 of Daiiis horribilis, Euarctos americanus, and Arcticonus 

 thibetanus ; but in profile view the lateral boundaries of the 

 nares project beyond and conceal the septum as in Melursus. 

 The skin round the disk is naked both dorsally, laterally, 

 and inferiorly, and the rhinarium itself is nowhere sharply 

 circumscribed, and the upper lip is more prominent and 

 mobile than in ordinary bears, though less so than in 

 Melursus. 



The most noticable characters in the rhinarium of Melursus 

 ursinus are its great width as compared with its height, the 

 transverse elongation of the nares, and the extent to which 

 the nares are overlapped above and sideways by the upper 

 rim and lateral lobes. The infranarial portion of the 

 rhinarium is very shallow, indistinctly defined from the 

 subjacent area of the upper lip which is to all intents and 

 purposes naked, generally moist, and shows no trace of 

 the median divisional line apparent in other bears, even 

 in Helarctos malayanus. The structure of the rhinarium in 

 Melursus suggests that the nostrils are capable of being- 

 closed by compression from above downwards (fig. 1, D). 



The Feet. 



My brief account of the feet of Euarctos americanus may 

 be repeated and amplified. 



The digital pads of the fore foot are separated almost to 

 their proximal ends, where they are united by a narrow strip 

 of naked skin. They are susceptible of considerable divari- 

 cation, expanding the paw distally. When in contact they 

 form a relatively strongly curved line, the third and fourth 

 toes projecting beyond the second and fifth, and the first 

 lying considerably farther back and well behind the second. 

 The area between the digital pads and the plantar pad is 

 overgrown with hairs arranged in four patches on the inter- 

 digital Avebs, the middle line of each digit exhibiting a narrow 

 hairless tract. The plantar pad appears to vary in shape 

 and in its length with relation to its width*; but in all 

 * In my figure of the fore paw of a specimen from Newfoundland 

 this pad is wider as compared with its length than in examples from 

 Ontario subsequently examined ; but whether this variation and the 

 mure distal placing of the pollical pad, as well as others observable in 

 the hind foot ofthe-Newfoundlstad specimen, are seasonal, local, individual 

 or due to inaccuracy of drawing, I am not in position to say. 



