ORDER CARNIVORA: CARNIVORES 217 



procyonoides (Gray) of Central and South China, Nyctereutes pro- 

 cyonoides orestes Thomas of South-west China, and Nyctereutes 

 procyonoides ussuriensis Matschie of North-east China, Manchuria, 

 and neighbouring eastern Siberia and Korea. Except in a few places 

 these animals are probably as plentiful to-day as they ever were, 

 except that they seem to have been badly decimated in the Amur 

 region, where once they were particularly plentiful, for the sake of 

 their pelts. In years past large quantities of the latter have been 

 exported from China, but at present there is no demand on either the 

 American or European markets for the 'raccoon' or 'raccoon-dog' 

 skins, as they are known to the trade, and consequently none are 

 coming from the interior to the ports, except such as are required 

 for the home market, which is fairly considerable." 



A few years ago approximately one-half million skins were ex- 

 ported annually from Shanghai (Sowerby, 1934a, p. 287).] 



Family URSIDAE: Bears 



The bears occur on all continents except Australia and perhaps 

 Africa (where a single problematical, extinct species has been re- 

 ported from Morocco and Algeria). The only South American 

 species is restricted to the Andean region. Thus the distribution of 

 the Ursidae is not quite so extensive as that of the Canidae. The 

 bears have suffered perhaps even more than the wolves at the hands 

 of man. Seven genera and about 135 forms are provisionally recog- 

 nized. The majority of the latter, however, are North American 

 Grizzly Bears, whose exact taxonomic status remains somewhat 

 uncertain. Dr. Glover M. Allen, in his volume on New World mam- 

 mals (1942), treats all the Grizzly Bears and some of the Black 

 Bears, as well as the South American Spectacled Bear. The present 

 volume deals with the various forms of the Brown Bear in Europe 

 and Asia and with the Atlas Bear of North Africa. 



Old World Brown Bear. Ours brun (Fr.) . Brauner Bar (Ger.) . 

 Oso (Sp.). Orso bruno (It.) 



URSUS ARCTOS Linnaeus 



[Ursus] arctos Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10* vol. 1, p. 47, 1758. (Sweden.) 

 FIGS.: Geoffroy and Cuvier, Hist. Nat. Mamm., vol. 5, pi. 211 (U. a. pyrenai- 

 cus), pi. 212 (U. a. collaris), 1824; Gervais, Hist. Nat. Mammif., pt. 2, 

 pi. 13, 1855 (U. a. pyrenaicus) ; Fitzinger, Bild.- Atlas, Saugth., fig. 72, 

 1860; Millais, 1904, pi. facing p. 236; Martin, 1910, pi. 38; Cabrera, 1914, 

 pi. 5 (U. a. pyrenaicus} ; Ognev, 1931, pi. 1 (U. a. caucasicus) ; Pocock, 

 1932, pi. 2, upper fig.; Castelli, 1935, pis. 1, 2. 



Numerous forms of the Brown Bear have been described, but 

 there is no general agreement on the validity of most of them, and 



