MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 1 83 



Description of Species. — The " coon" may be immediately distinguished 

 from all other of our eastern mammals, large or small, by its club or baton- 

 shaped, cylindrical tail, adorned with alternate black and yellowish gray 

 Tings, each about an inch wide. In size and shape he is rather similar to a 

 cub bear 6 months old. The resemblance to the bear in many respects led 

 Linneeus to put the raccoon in the genus Ursus. His hind feet are planti- 

 grade as in the bear, and make a track like that of a child. He is peculiar 

 in being able to use the forefeet with such dexterity as to resemble the move- 

 ments of the human hand. The face and expression of the coon is foxy, at 

 ■the same time having some of the elements of the marten, wolverine, and 

 ■fisher, his near relatives. The general color is coarse grizzled gray with 

 ■tawny or brownish suffusion of the under fur showing among the longer 

 hairs.. 



Measurements. — Total length, 830 mm. (32 J:^) in. ; tail vertebrae 250(9^) ; 

 •hind foot, 120 (4^). 



Family Ursid^ ; Bears. 

 Genus Ursus Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, 1758, vol. i, p. 47. 

 East American Black Bear. Ursus Americanus Pallas. 



1780. Ursus americanus Pallas, Spicilegia zoologica, fascic, 14, p. 5. 



Type locality : Eastern North America. 



Faunal Distribution. — Hudsonian, Canadian, transition and Austral zones : 

 Hudson Bay and Atlantic Ocean to Georgia ; west to Pacific Ocean and 

 -Alaska. 



Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Once uniformly and abundantly repre- 

 sented in eveiy county of the two states. Now almost exterminated in N. J., 

 but occasionally crossing the Delaware from Pa. into Warren and Sussex 

 -Cos. An occasional one is seen in the cedar swamps of southern N. J., but 

 not oftener than once or twice in 10 years. In the most densely populated 

 ■counties of Pa. it is unknown , in about half of those remaining it is found 

 only as a straggler. In parts of the remaining counties it is almost as numer- 

 ous as ever known to have been. In other sections, where deforesting of 

 coniferous woods has been succeeded by scrub oak, chestnut, beech, briars, 

 vines and berry-producing plants, it has increased in numbers and may be 

 said to be abundant. 



Records in Pa. — Bradford Co. — Thomas Leahy was reported to have killed 

 a brown black bear in Bradford Co. in 1882. — Brown. 



Bucks Co. — " One was tracked in snow and chased across country from 

 Bear Swamp, Mercer Co., N. J., in the winter of 1870, through Rocky hill to 



