NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 135 



(3) Canidae, foxes and wolves: 22 forms, representing two 

 genera, have been exterminated or endangered. 



(4) Felidae, the cat family: 10 races of the puma and two of 

 the jaguar are treated here. J. E. H. 



Family URSIDAE: Bears 



THE BLACK BEARS 



The black bears are much smaller than the grizzlies, with 

 shorter claws and usually with black coloration, although in 

 western North America several local color phases occur. The 

 skull is characterized by its relatively short snout and short 

 nasals in comparison with the grizzly bears; the length of 

 nasals is equal to, instead of being more than, the width across 

 the front of the first upper molars, and the two posterior cusps 

 of the first lower molar instead of being in approximately the 

 same transverse plane are arranged so that the outer is slightly 

 in advance of the inner. The black bears were formerly found 

 all over the wooded parts of North America south into northern 

 Mexico, but at the present tmie this range has been locally 

 restricted through killing them out in the more settled areas. 

 Nevertheless so wary and intelligent are these animals that 

 they have in many regions been able to survive in spite of per- 

 secution, and hence only a brief consideration is here needed. 

 Hitherto, in addition to the typical form of the eastern parts of 

 North America, no less than 13 local forms have been described. 

 The value of these can not be fully estimated until a general 

 study is made of the entire group with adequate material. 

 However, in a recent paper, Dr. E. R. Hall (1928) has reviewed 

 the bears of this group inhabiting the Northwest coast and 

 concludes that the seven forms described from the region are 

 all subspecies of the typical black bear. In the western United 

 States and on the Pacific coast, a cinnamon phase occurs as 

 far north as Taku River, Alaska, and young in the same litter 

 may be either black or cinnamon in color. A gray or bluish 

 phase is found in the region between Lynn Canal and Cape St. 

 Elias, and this has been described as Ursus emmonsii, the 

 glacier bear. Hall (1928) points out cranial characters that 

 may serve to distinguish these bears as a local race apart from 

 color, for black individuals occur within the same range. 



