142 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XVI, 



tip to tip of outstretched hind limbs, 2645. Longest fore claw, from 

 base to tip in a straight line, 70; chord of arc, lower surface of claw, 

 57; transverse diameter at base, 14; antero-posterior diameter at 

 base, 27. Longest hind claw, 33; transverse diameter at base, 10; 

 antero-posterior diameter at base, 21. The claws are much longer, 

 less curved, and much stouter than in the Alaskan Grizzly. 



Skull. Long and narrow, with moderately expanded zygomatic 

 arches, and comparatively low and not greatly expanded forehead. 

 In fact, the skull, seen only from above, might almost be referred to 

 the Polar Bear group. It consequently follows that it is in strong 

 contrast as regards its general contour with the broad, relatively short, 

 high skull of Ursus middendorffi and allied forms. 



Greatest length (front of premaxillary to end of occipital crest) , 

 395 mm.; basal length (inner base of incisors to posterior border of 

 con dyles), 380; occipito-sphenoid length, 100; postpalatal length, 150; 

 zygomatic breadth, 209; interorbital breadth, 81; breadth at post- 

 orbital processes, no; length of nasals, 108; palatal length, 186; 

 palatal breadth, 51; occipito-nasal length, 330; length of upper molar- 

 premolar series, 114; length of lower jaw, 260; height of coronoid, 

 114; length of lower molar-premolar series, 132. 



Ursus merriami seems most nearly allied to U. dalli Mer- 

 riam, from Yakutat Bay, the skull being long and narrow with 

 the interorbital region only slightly elevated and not greatly 

 expanded, in this respect differing greatly from U. midden- 

 dorffi of Kadiak Island and the eastern portion of the Alaska 

 Peninsula. The palatal region, however, is longer and one 

 fifth narrower than in U. dalli, 1 from which it differs so much, 

 and in so many important details that further comparison of 

 the two forms is necessary. 



Since preparing the foregoing paper and the illustrations 

 accompanying it, I have received a paper from Dr. Merriam 

 entitled 'Two New Bears from the Alaska Peninsula,' 2 in 

 which he describes a bear from Pavlof Bay under the name 

 Ursus dalli gyas. This is probably the nearest ally of Ursus 

 merriami yet described, but the description of the skull is brief 

 and incomplete, and does not, in several important points, 



1 For comparison in the present connection Dr. Merriam has kindly loaned me a 

 skull of Ursus dalli (No. 75047, from " near Mt. St. Elias"), figured in pi. vi, fig. 5, of 

 his paper already cited a very old specimen with much worn teeth. 



2 Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, Vol. XV, pp. 77-79, March 22, 1902. 



