1897.] BLUE BBAE, OF TIBET. 419 



ologists, in Ui'sus sjpelceus (fig. 1) this tooth is short and has two 

 very large tubercles. Busk ' considered tliat only one of these 

 tubercles (the posterior) is represented in the corresponding tooth 

 of the typical tf. arctus group, and apparently regarded the anterior 

 tubercle as distinct, 1 canuot, however, but consider them as 

 homologous, and I think Busk has attached far too much import- 

 ance to them, as also to the structure of the talon in the same 

 tooth. 



Fig. 1. 



a 



Fourth right lower premolars of Urstis gpelisus (1) and U. arctus isabellimcs (2). 

 a, anterior ; b, posterior tubercle. 



1. TJrsus aectus fossilis. — PMstocene Brotun Bear. 



Ursus fossilis, Goldfuss, Nova Acta Ac. Cses. Leop.-Oar. vol. x. 

 pt. 2, p. 259 (1821) ; Busk, Trans. Zool. .Soc. vol. x. p. 64 (lS77). 



Ursus prisciis, Cuvier, Ossemens Fossiles, vol. iv. p. 380 (1823). 



Ursus ferox fossilis, Busk, Phil. Trans. 1873, p. 546. 



According to Bask, the Brown Bear of the English caverns and 

 Irish peat-bogs is much nearer to the Grizzly than to the European 

 Brown Bear, which first makes its appearance in the English fen- 

 deposits. Jn this determination he relies chietlj' on the characters 

 of the skull and the large size and structure of the fourth lower 

 premolar. Although, as I shall show presently, one of the cha- 

 racters of the latter tooth on which he lays stress is not constant, 

 yet I feel bound to accept the general conclusions of one who has 

 devoted so much labour to a very difficult subject. It is important 

 to notice that he regards the Brown Bear from the Q-ibraltar caverns 

 as probably intermediate between U. arctus fossilis and U. arctus 

 isahellinus. 



As already said, if his conclusions are correct we must regard 

 U. arctus fossilis as the ancestral stock from which have sprung 

 all the other members of the group. 



2. Ursus arctus typicus. — European Brown Bear. 



Ursus pyrenaicus, E. Cuv. Hist. Nat. Mamm. livr. xlv. (1824). 

 Ursus norveyijicus, F. Cuv. ojj. cit. livr. vii. 

 Ursus cadavarinus, Eversmaun, Bull. Soc. Moscou, 1840, p. 8. 

 Ursus formica rius, Eversmaun, loe. cit. 



Myrmarctos eversmanni, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 695 ; 

 Cat. Carniv. Brit. Mus. p. 232 (1869). 



Under this name may be included the living Bears of Europe at 



' Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. x. pp. 65, 6G (1877) 



