A PECULIAR BEAR FROM ALASKA. 
BY WILFRED H. OSGOOD. 
In view of the scanty knowledge of the small Alaska bear known 
as the glacier bear, it seems important to publish a figure and a descrip- 
tion of a peculiar specimen (No. 13768) now on exhibition in Field 
Museum. This skin (there is no skull) was purchased from the fur 
dealers C. F. Periolat and Son by Mr. V. Shaw Kennedy and by him 
presented to the Museum. Later it was mounted by Julius Friesser, 
one of the Museum’s taxidermists, and placed on exhibition. The 
skin is practically complete although some slight restoration of parts 
was necessary about the nose and one of the feet. It was received 
by the fur dealers with a consignment from Alaska, and according to 
report was obtained in the region of Mount St. Elias. 
Its principal peculiarity is in the fact that it is very much darker 
than the majority of specimens heretofore regarded as representing 
typical Ursus emmonsi. Gray hairs are scattered throughout the 
pelage of the entire animal, but the predominating effect is black. 
The black is intense and nearly unmixed with gray on the lower cheeks 
and throat and thence down the middle of the breast. The nape and 
sides of the neck also are nearly pure glossy black. The outer sides 
of the forelegs and the front of the hind legs and the feet are chiefly 
black. On the feet, forelegs, and breast the hairs are mostly black 
to the roots but elsewhere in the areas which appear black on the 
surface, the hairs are grayish at the base. The parts of rather more 
gray than black are the lower shoulders, the sides, and the hips, hut 
practically all the hairs are broadly tipped with black, the total 
amount being much greater than in ordinary Ursus emmonsi. A 
black line from the nape to the tail is fairly distinct and the tail itself 
is mostly pure black. The top of the rostrum is rich ferruginous 
slightly mixed with creamy, while sparsely scattered ferruginous or 
creamy hairs extend backward to the occipital region and nearly 
to the base of the ears, becoming fewer and largely replaced by white 
hairs posteriorly. The extreme tip of the nose and parts of the lips 
Were missing when the skin was received and are shown restored in 
the mounted specimen. 
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