63 
there is found a favorite fish with the Otter, called the fresh-water trout 
(Grystes salmoides). 
‘Although the food of the Otter in general is fish, yet when hard 
pressed by hunger it will not reject animal food of any kind. Those we 
had in confinement, when no fish could be procured, were fed on beef, 
which they always preferred boiled. During the last winter we ascer- 
tained that the skeleton and feathers of a wild duck were taken from 
an Oiter’s nest on the banks of a rice field reserve-dam. It was conjec- 
tured that the duck had either been killed or wounded by the hunters, 
and was in this state seized by the Otter.” 
FAMILY URSIDA. 
The family Ursedx formerly included the Raccoons, to which they are 
allied by the tuberculate premolars, plantigrade walk, and stout body; 
the group is now restricted to the Bears proper, of large size, clumsy 
form, and very short tail. The cutting and compressed crowns of the 
sectorial teeth characteristic of the Cats and Dogs, are here replaced by 
broad teeth, with the crowns studded with tubercles, adapting the Bears 
to the more varied nature of their food. The species are not numerous, 
and, with the exception of one species, Ursus ornatus, which occurs in the 
South American Andes, are only found in the northern hemisphere. 
Genus Ursus. lLinneeus. 
Generic Charatters._Body thick, clumsy, and large; feet entirely planti- | 
grade; soles naked ; pails longp ae very short; head very broad. Denti- 
tion: 1. 23; ¢. £43 pm. £43 m. $e 3512. 
The skull of the ae is Peek and the muzzle longer and broader 
than in th. Dogs and Cats; the lower jaw is massive and pie the bony 
palate extends behind the molar teeth. 
In the bears the molar teeth (seven) attain the maximum found in 
placental mammalia; some of the premolars are very small, and early 
deciduous, particularly the second and third. The first three premolars 
above and below are small; they have a single fang, and at their crowns 
are occupied by a single compressed tubercle. The fourth upper premolar 
represents the sectorial tooth of the carnivora; its shape is triangular 
with the base posterior instead of anterior, as in Dogs. The first true 
molar has an oblong crown, with four principal cusps. 
There are in the United States two perfectly distinct species; the 
Black Bear, Ursus americanus, and the Grizzly, Ursus arctos horribilis, the 
“ Cinnamon Bear” of mountaineers (not the Cinnamon Bear of authors, 
which is U. americanus var. cinnamoneus). The Grizzly is probably not 
specifically different from U. arctos of Europe. The two occur under al- 
most every variation of color, but retain their specific characters through- 
