MAMMALS OF UTAH 127 



BAIRD GRIZZLY 



URSUS HORRIBILIS BAIRDI (Merriam) 



Ursus bairdi Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. XXVII, pp 192- 



193, 1914. 

 Ursus horribilis bairdi Merriam, N. A. Fauna, No. 41, p. 19, 



1918. , ' i- ' 



Description — Size large — in the Rocky mountain region 

 exceeded only, if at all, by horribilis ; skull long, with narrow 

 elevated fronto-nasal region; claws of moderate length, 

 smooth. Cranial characters — Old male (type) from Blue 

 River, Colorado. Size large; fronto-nasal region high and 

 rather narrow; rostrum rather long, narrow and strongly 

 compressed in front of orbits; face long sloping; frontal 

 shield flat, short pointed, faintly depressed medially ; shield 

 and nasals in essentially same plane except that anterior 

 third of nasals is slightly upturned; postorbital processes 

 large, outstanding, flat, and blunt; orbital rims prominent; 

 sagittal crest moderately high posteriorly; temporal im- 

 pression shorts, incurved, beaded; zygomata strongly out- 

 bowed, squarely spreading posteriorly; lachrymal duct 

 notching orbital rim; squamosal shelf front, arched over 

 meatus, the free edge thickened; palate and postpalatal 

 shelf of moderate breadth ; mastoids rather long, divergent. 

 (Merriam.) 



Distribution — Southern Rocky Mountain region from 

 San Juan mountains, southwestern Colorado, northward 

 through Wyoming to Montana, and perhaps to southeastern 

 British Columbia. 



In July, 1918, Dr. Merriam wrote me as follows : "The 

 grizzly of the Wasatch mountains is still open to question, 

 but a not fully adult male killed in the Uintas by Vernon 

 Bailey some years ago appears to be Ursus Bairdi. There 

 is a skull of an adult male grizzly of the planiceps group 

 in the Utah Museum, but no one seems to know where the 

 animal was killed. It is possible of course that the two 

 species occured in the Wasatch." 



For some years Dr. Merriam has been working on the 

 grizzly and big brown bears of North America, accumu- 

 lating for comparison during that time at Washington a 

 collection of bear skulls that far excell all other collections 

 in the world together. Thus far he has separated the griz- 

 zly and brown bears into 98 forms and has added one new 

 genus. There is a great need for specimens from Utiah, 

 Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado; and until further material 

 is furnished full determinations cannot be made. It mav 



