138 



EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



This is a race of the black bear, distinguished from the 

 typical form by slight cranial characters. As might be ex- 

 pected it is in these characters most like the race perniger, of 

 the Kenai Peninsula, but "has the rostrum decidedly longer 

 and inflated anteriorly over the canines. Also the upper 

 molars are smaller and the mastoid and zygomatic breadths 

 are greater" (Hall, 1928). The name will apply to the black 

 bears of the mainland of southern Alaska. In this race a dilute 

 color phase occurs, which is blue-gray in appearance, but not 

 all the bears of the region are thus colored, so that this peculi- 

 arity, which first led to its recognition in nomenclature, is not 

 characteristic of all the individuals. 



The blue bear, or perhaps in particular those individuals 

 showing the "blue" phase, is supposed to be "threatened with 

 extinction" because of over-hunting and because this phase has 

 a circumscribed distribution, in the vicinity of the Glacier Bay 

 National Monument. However, since this latter is now a 

 reserve, adequate patrolling of the region to prevent poaching 

 should insure its perpetuation. 



KERMODE'S BEAR; WHITE BEAR 



EUARCTOS AMERICANUS KERMODEI (Horiiaday) 



Ursus kermodei Hornaday, 9th Ann. Kept. New York Zool. Soc., for 1904, pp. 81-86, 



Jan., 1905 (Gribble Island, British Columbia). 

 FIGS.: Hornaday, 1905, 2 pis.; Allen, J. A., 1909, p. 234, fig. 1 (skin); p. 236, figs. 2, 3 



(skull); Anthony, H. E., 1928, pi. 4, opp. p. 76 (colored). 



Kermode's bear (Euarctos americamis kermodei) 



