Description and Distribution 191 



that a great variability in color is also shown by the black 

 bears throughout the Rocky Mountain region, where these 

 animals are to be found of various shades from dark 

 brown to buff, and even, occasionally, of a uniform cream 

 color. I have never seen a jet black grizzly, or a black 

 bear as nearly white as some grizzlies; but between these 

 extremes I have seen many bears whose species was not 

 to be determined by color alone. Indeed, throughout the 

 North-west, so far as the color of either the grizzly or the 

 black bear is concerned, it no more determines the ani- 

 mal's classification than does the track indicate its color. 

 One often hears the cinnamon bear spoken of as a dis- 

 tinct species, and this idea is, I think, widely entertained; 

 but while there are many bears of a cinnamon color, they 

 may be either of the "grizzly" or of the "black" variety. 

 I have seen cinnamon colored bears in both species. 



One is often asked as to one's opinion as regards the 

 "typical" color of the grizzly bear. This is a natural 

 question, both from the stand-point of the layman and 

 from that of the naturalist; for it is customary, in de- 

 scribing an animal for the purposes of scientific record, to 

 select a typical specimen, and base the description upon 

 that. But having myself seen so many hundreds of these 

 animals, and having seldom seen any two exactly alike, I 

 have always both hesitated to give a categorical answer to 

 this query, and questioned in my own mind the value of an 

 arbitrary selection. Yet, in view of the emphasis often 

 laid upon the point, I wrote to my friend, Dr. William 

 T. Hornaday, of the New York Zoological Society, and 

 asked him what his observations have been. 



Dr. Hornaday says : " Regarding the color of the grizzly 



