Allen.] 184 [December 15, 



tremely docile to man, allowing itself to be handled, and unless 

 teased, is said to rarely offer to scratch or bite. At Rippey, in 

 Greene county, I saw a half grown one in confinement that had been 

 caught by a boy a few days before, and carried home by him in his 

 arms. When discovered they are said to lie flat and motionless on 

 the ground, and if they think they are not seen will allow a person to 

 pass within a few feet of them without moving. Though generally 

 regarded as a harmless animal by the farmers, the bones and wool of 

 lambs have been found in their burrows. 1 



UBsnxas. 



14. Procyon lotor Storr. (Raccoon.) 

 Common. 



15. Ursus arctos Linn. 2 (Bear.) 



The bear is reported to occur here, but I learned nothing of special 

 interest respecting it. From the character of the country it evi- 

 dently cannot now be common, however numerous it may form- 

 erly have been. Localities named after the bear, as Bear creeks, Bear 

 groves, etc., indicate its former greater or less abundance here. 



CERVIDiE. 



16. Cervus canadensis Erxl. (American Elk.) 



Formerly numerous, but now extinct in most of the region under 

 description. It is but a few years since good antlers of this species 

 were common on the prairies, but through the combined action of 



1 The Mexican Badger ( Taxidea Berlandieri Baird, U. S. and Mex. Bound. 

 Sur. Kep., II, Mammals. 21, 1859; Taxidea Berlandieri Baird, Mam. N. Amer., 

 205), described as " Similar to the T. americana [labradoria], but smaller; above 

 reddish gray, with a narrow white stripe extending from the muzzle to the root 

 of the tail," from skulls of Mexican specimens and the arss. notes of Dr. Berlan- 

 dier, seems to be merely the smaller southern race of the common T. americana. 

 It differs from it chiefly in being a little smaller, and, according to some reports, 

 lighter in color. The probability seems very great that the slight differences in 

 ■color pointed out are merely individual differences, although the T. Berlandieri 

 may constitute a more or less well-marked climatal race. 



2 In the eighth number of the Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 

 the writer has shown that it is impossible to satisfactorily characterize or distin- 

 guish more than a single species of land bear in the colder portion of the Northern 

 Hemisphere, though it must be admitted that between the extremes of variation 

 there are very great differences, more than would be required even to indicate a 

 diversity of species, if the differences were constant, as they are most notably not, 

 the most distinct forms gradually intergrading. 



