The present publication contains preliminary descriptions of thirty apparently undescribed species and subspecies of the big Bears Grizzlies and big Brown Bears-of various parts of western America from northern Mexico to Aretic Alaska. This will be followed in the near future by more complete descriptions with fuller comparisons, known ranges, measurements and other matter, illustrated by photographs of skulls and teeth.

Most of the species here published have been in manuscript for several years, and have been held back awaiting the acquisition of fuller material. Through the kindly cooperation of the principal museums of America* and of a considerable number of sportsmen and hunters, enough skulls-more than 500-have now been brought together to admit of working out the characters of most of the species, though much remains to be done in the way of mapping their geographic ranges.

It will be a surprise to many to be told that until within a few months no museum in America contained either a skin or a skull of the adult male of the great Plains Grizzly Ursus horribilis-the “White Bear" of Lewis and Clark--the first Grizzly to receive a scientific name. Until recently, not only were the characters of this splendid species unknown, but there was no certainty

American Museum of Natural History, New York; Carnegie Museum, Pittsburg; Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago; Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge; Provincial Museum, Victoria, B. C.; Victoria Memorial Museum, Ottawa; Peabody Museum of Yale University; Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. University of California, and the Museums of the Universities of Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming.

as to which of three neighboring species was entitled to the

name.

The specimens in hand prove that in several parts of the Rocky Mountain region of the United States and British Columbia and in parts of southeastern Alaska, two perfectly distinct species-in some cases three-occupy the same territory. This is a rather startling announcement but one concerning which there is not the shadow of a doubt.

The list of persons who have aided me by the loan of material is too long for publication in the present connection, but it is a pleasure as well as a duty to express my appreciation of the invaluable assistance rendered by the loan or presentation of skins and skulls of Grizzly and Brown Bears utilized in the preparation of the following descriptions. The persons who have helped me in this way are: Miss Annie M. Alexander, C. E. Aiken, Dr. J. A. Allen, Edward F. Ball, H. C. Beggs, Mrs. C. C. Beggs, John P. Bird, Robert K. Blake, W. C. Bradbury, Fred K. Burnham, Mr. and Mrs. E. S. Cameron, Elton Clark, Charles B. Cory, Charles R. Cross, Jr., Howard Eaton, J. D. Figgins, Joseph Grinnell, Samuel Henshaw, Dr. W. J. Holland, Dr. R. Houston, James T. Jardine, Francis Kermode, J. H. Kidder, Paul Kleineidam, Prof. S. H. Knight, Frederick Lambart, J. D. McGuire, George Mixter, Dr. Wm. Jason Mixter, G. Frederick Norton, Prof. C. C. Nutting, John M. Phillips, Warburton Pike, Wilson Potter, George D. Pratt, Dr. E. P. Richardson, Archibald Rogers, Carl Rungius, Homer E. Sargent, Professor W. B. Scott, Charles Sheldon, George Shiras, 3d & 4th, P. A. Taverner, E. R. Warren, A. Bryan Williams, W. W. Wood.

Ursus alexandrae* sp. nov.

Type from Kusilof Lake, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. Sept. 1906. No. 4752 old, Mus. Vert. Zool., Univ. Calif. Orig. No. 218. (Skull, skin and skeleton complete.)

Characters.-Size large; skull long and narrow with exceptionally broad rostrum; pelage very uniform in color, scarcely or not grizzled. Claws enormous (2d foreclaw of type specimen measuring: length from upper base 91 mm.; height at base 25 mm.; breadth 11.5 mm.). The

*Named in honor of Miss Annie M. Alexander of Oakland, California, whose colleetion of Alaska Bears is second only to that of the Biological Survey and National Museum.

longest claw in Wilson Potter's specimen measures 120 mm.; in the male killed by Dall DeWeese 110 mm.

Color.-(Type specimen, very old male, in fresh short fall pelage :) pale, almost grayish, brown, becoming yellowish brown between ears, contrasting with pale brown of muzzle; legs and feet only slightly darker than back-entire animal remarkably unicolor; underfur plumbeous, crinkled and woolly. Another male, killed by Wilson Potter of Philadelphia in May, 1912 (belonging to skull No. 181102 U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.—presented by Wilson Potter), is pale buffy inclining to light "reddish brown" throughout, without grizzly appearance; legs only slightly darker. One killed by Dall DeWeese of Canyon City, Colorado, Sept. 7, 1897, is described by him as “grayish-yellow,” with legs and sides chocolate brown.

Cranial characters.-Skull large, long, rather narrow, with moderately spreading zygomata, short flattish frontal shield, outstanding postorbitals (with age); very broad rostrum, and long and high sagittal crest. Frontal shield not markedly elevated above plane of rostrum; posterior root of zygoma not expanded. Canines large and long.

Skull of male adult compared with male adult kenaiensis--the only other large bear known to inhabit Kenai Peninsula: Basal length, palate, and occipito-sphenoid essentially same; skull as a whole much narrower, frontal shield interorbitally and across postorbital processes much narrower, flatter, more horizontal, not materially elevated above plane of rostrum; zygomata much less widely spreading, squamosal part much narrower (not expanded); sagittal erest much longer, reaching anteriorly over posterior 13 of frontals (in kenaiensis ending on or near frontoparietal suture]; posterior third of frontals compressed, rising in a keel to sagittal crest; condyle of jaw, and glenoid fossa short (not produced outwardly as in kenaiensis). Canine teeth, both upper and lower, but especially the lower, much larger and longer.

Remarks.-The skull of Ursus alexandrae is of a generalized type, lacking the special distinctive features that characterize several of its neighbors--as kenaiensis, sheldoni, and others-none of which are Grizzlies. Among the Grizzlies it stands alone in the great breadth of the rostrumwhich in bears of its size is only exceeded by the widely different Ursus kenaiensis, which can not be classed as a Grizzly. Ursus alexandrae attains to the largest size known among the Grizzly Bears, the biggest skulls equalling those of the huge Ursus magister of Southern California.

Ursus eltonclarki * sp. nov.

Type from near Freshwater Bay, Chichagof Island, the more northern of the Sitka Islands, Alaska. ♂ adult No. 179066 U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll. Collected May 19, 1912, by Elton Clark and by him presented to Biological Survey.

Characters.-Size medium or rather small; skull small, long, narrow, and rather low, with flat frontal shield. Claws of true Grizzly typesmoothly polished; strongly curved and rather short; longest claw (in Named in honor of Elton Clark, of Boston, who killed and presented the type