1896.] Recent Books and Pamphlets. 657 
As an account of the North American bears this paper is far in 
advance of anything hitherto published. 
The difficulty of distinguishing several species of the typical Ursi in 
North America has not been so much the absence of characters among 
themselves, as the intermediate position of the old world Ursus arctus 
with regard to them. Middendorff’s studies of this species convinced 
him that it varied in size 33 per cent. of the largest dimensions, and in 
other respects, but he could not refer the varieties to more than one spe- 
cies. With these very elaborate studies as a basis, J. A. Allen and A. E, 
Brown in subsequent years could only see in the North American 
grizzly and black bears, geographical races. The fault then of Dr. 
Merriam’s paper is, that he has not given any account of the relations 
of our bears to the intermediate series of the Old World. 
Dr. Merriam is a genus fancier, and he bids fair to adopt all of the 
names of his illustrious predecessor Dr. J. E. Gray of the British 
Museum. Thus he adopts Gray’s name, Thalarctos for the polar bear 
on characters which do not exist. He dallies with Euarctos for our 
black bear for equally poor reasons. We must admit, however, that 
Dr. Merriam does for the first time give satisfactory characters with 
which to distinguish this species from the Ursus arctus. 
RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 
ALLEN, J. A.—Descriptions of New American Mammals. Extr. Bull. Amer. 
Mus ue Sages Vol. VII, 1895. From the author. 
s, C. W.—Note on a specimen of Ceraterpetum galvanii Huxley, from 
Biak Extr. Geol. Mag , Dec. iv, Vol. II, 1895. From the author. 
Annual Report for oe Iowa Geological Survey Vol. III. Des Moines, 1895. 
From the Survey. 
Bancs, O.—Notes on North American Mammals. Extr. Proceeds. Boston 
Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. XX VI, 1895. Fromthe author. : 
Barret, J. O.—Forestry in our Schools. Minneapolis, 1895, 
Beecuer, C. E.—The abe Stages of Trilobites. Extr. Amer, Geol., Vol. 
XVI, 1895. From the au 
Berc, C.—Enumeracion aussi y sinonunica de los Peces de las Costas 
Argentina y Uruguaya. Buenos Aires, 1895. 
—— Sobre Peces de agua dulce nuevos ó poco conocidos de la Republica Do- 
tina. Extrs. Anal. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires, T. IV, 1895. From the author. 
BouULENGER, G. A.—Remarks on some Cranial Characters of the Salmonoids. 
Extr. Poced Zool. Soc. London, 1895. 
