THALARCTOS 



297 



Ursus richardsoni ; forehead in most specimens rising abruptly 

 above level of rostrum so as to produce a noticeable concavity in 

 dorsal profile, but this character subject to marked variations, 

 the exact nature of which is not fully understood. The skulls 

 of the two species are of approximately the same size, those of 

 U. horribilis perhaps averaging somewhat the larger. The teeth 

 of the two animals are also much alike. 



9. Kvickjock, Norbotten, Stockholm Museum 90. 8. 1. 3. 



Sweden. (b). 



16. Sweden. (Lloyd.) Purchased (Stevens) . 62.3.29.7-8. 



9 st. Engadine, Switzerland. H. Justen (p). 86. 1. 23. 1. 



3 skeletons. Hatszeg, Transylvania, C. G. Danford (c). 78. 1. 16. 1-3. 

 Hungary. 



Note on the Ursus formicarws of Bieleb. 



A peculiar small bear supposed to have been taken in the 

 Canton of Grisons, Switzerland, has been described by Professor 

 Bieler of the Lausanne Agricultural College as Ursus formicarius 

 Eversmann.* Through the author's kindness I have had the 

 opportunity to examine this skull. It is that of a rather young 

 individual, apparently a female, with basal suture open, but with 

 teeth showing slight indications of wear. In size it is smaller 

 than in a female of the same age or slightly younger from 

 Sweden (see Table of cranial measurements, p. 294), the inter- 

 orbital region is much depressed, so that the frontal profile is 

 nearly flat, and the mesopterygoid fossa is unusually broad and 

 short, the width between pterygoids equal to a, little more than 

 half distance from hamular to level of last molar. The teeth on 

 the other hand are slightly larger than usual in females (see 

 Table, p. 295) ; in form they show no special peculiarities. Small 

 bears, presumably of this type, have been reported from Spain, 

 northern Italy, Russia and Scandinavia, and have formed 

 the basis of such names as Ursus formicarius, U. arctos minor 

 and Myrmaretos eversmanni. Until more is known of them, as 

 well as of the normal variation in ordinacy Ursus arctos, their 

 status must remain in doubt. 



Genus THALARCTOS Gray. 



1825. TJialarctos Gray, Ann. of Philosophy, N.S., x, p. 62, July, 1825. 

 1825. Tlmlassarctos Gray, Ann. of Philosophy, N.S., x, p. 339, November, 



1825. 

 1896. Thalassiarchus Kobelt, Bericht Senckenberg. naturforsch. Gesellsch. 



Frankfurt am Main, p. 93 (Substitute for Thalarctos). 



Type species. — Thalarctos polaris Gray = Ursus maritimus 

 Phipps. 



* Compte-Bendu des Seances du Sixieme Congres Internationale de 

 Zoologie, Berne, 1904, p. 248. 1905. 



