136 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Finally, on Gribble and Princess Royal Islands, British 

 Columbia, three color phases occur, the lightest of which is 

 nearly white and has been named Ursus kermodei. But "the 

 light phase is not always pure white and may include yellowish 

 rufous and bright golden rufous bands and spots." Since the 

 color characters of Kermode's bear offer but slight grounds for 

 distinction, Hall recognizes this as a valid race chiefly on the 

 basis of minor cranial characters. 



In the following account only a bare outline of the present 

 status of some of the forms seems necessary. 



EASTERN BLACK BEAR 



EUARCTOS AMERICANTJS AMERICANUS (Pallas) 



Ursus americanus Pallas, Spicilegia Zoologica, pt. 14, p. 5, 1780 (eastern North 



America) . 

 FIGS.: Elliot, 1901, pi. 34 (three views of skull); Nelson, 1916, p. 440 (col. figs.). 



Since the settlement of eastern North America by whites, 

 the black bear has retreated from the more populous or cleared 

 sections, but, given a reasonable area of forest, it will readily 

 adapt itself to contact and persist in wild areas. In eastern 

 United States a few bears still exist in western Massachusetts, 

 they are common in the less settled parts of Maine, and are 

 present in small numbers in the White Mountains of New 

 Hampshire and the mountainous parts of Vermont. They no 

 longer are found in Rhode Island or Connecticut but remain in 

 some numbers in the Adirondacks of New York State and in the 

 Pennsylvania mountains. According to recent census esti- 

 mates of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the approximate 

 bear population of these States is: Maine, 1,400; New Hamp- 

 shire, 650; Vermont, 400; Massachusetts, 10; New York 1,000. 

 Rhoads in 1903 said that at that time it was almost extermi- 

 nated in New Jersey; however, a few seem to have persisted in 

 the cedar swamps of the southern part of the State and in 

 the adjacent parts of Delaware. A bear was reported to have 

 been killed in Johnsonburg, N. J., in 1920. Pennsylvania, 

 with its large areas of mountain forests, is estimated to have 

 a bear population of 3,300; Maryland, 150; and West Virginia, 

 2,100, in the mountainous regions. Virginia has fewer, an 

 estimated 600; North Carolina nearly twice that number, 

 South Carolina 230, and Georgia 400. West of the Alleghenies 



