334 



Measurements of twenty-nine skulls of MEPHITIS MEPHITICA. 



UESUS AECTOS, ET VARS. 



In a series of seventeen rather aged skulls of Ursus arctos and its 

 varieties (all but one of the specimens, being American), the largest 

 specimens are from California, the great metropolis of the " Grizzlies". 

 Of the eight skulls from this State, five attain a length of 14.50 or more, 

 three exceeding 15.00, and one reaching 15.60, while the smallest falls 

 as low as 13.25. Of five specimens from different localities in the Eocky 

 Mountains, three reach or exceed 14.40, the extremes being 14.75 aud 

 13.25. Of three specimens from the Arctic coast, one has a length of 

 13.40, and the others respectively 12.40 and 12.35. A single specimen 

 from Eussia has a length of 13.75. These I regard as being all unques- 

 tionably conspecific, though perhaps referable to two or three subspe- 

 cies. Whether strictly so or not, we have the fact of the culmination in 

 size in the region where the Grizzlies are most abundant, namely, in 

 California 5 these two facts, greatest abundance and largest size, seem- 

 ing to indicate this region as presenting the most favorable conditions 

 for the existence of these animals. The Eocky Mountain specimens 

 average considerably smaller than the Californiau ; and though the spe- 

 cies is pretty frequent here it is far less abundant than on the Pacific 

 slope, especially in California and Oregon. The Franklin Bay speci- 

 mens, representing the so-called '* Barren Ground Bear", and indistin- 

 guishable from the true arctos of the Old World, are smaller even than 

 the specimens from the Eocky Mountains. 



