| OCR Text |
Show 334 Measurements of twenty- nine skulls of MEPHITIS MEPHIUCA. II is 836° 17 3971 9434 4195 417 419 416 418 10008 3327 575 580 577 574 583 578 569 567 568 576 3816 8939 610 4833 1690 1004 1113 1395 1878 Locality. Port Towmiend, Oreg Fort Crook. Cel Ojcden, Utah do . . . . . . do Wyoming T e r r i t o r y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Upton, He : do do . . . . . . do.'. do do Enaex County, New York Carlisle, Pa Sex. Length. a 30 3.08 a 93 a e5 a 19 3.50 3.10 a 98 a is a 96 3.25 aoo a 87 a 85 a 90 a 70 ae7 a 70 a 75 a 79 a 88 aoo a 87 aoo a so aoo a 68 a 90 a 68 1 a 07 a 04 1.70 1.87 a 25 1.90 1.85 a 05 1.78 1.85 1.75 1.73 1.75 1.70 1.78 1.53 1.70 1.78 1.65 1.78 1.60 1.90 Remarke. Very old. Very old. Fossil; M. frontata Cone*. Imperfeot. Imperfect. Imperfect. URSUS AROTOS, ET VABS. In a series of seventeen rather aged skulls of Ursus arctos and it* varieties ( all but one of the specimens being American), the largest specimens are from California, the great metropolis of the " Grizzlies*. Of the eight skulls from this State, five attain a length of 14.50 or more, three exceeding 15.00, and one reaching 15.60, while the smallest falls as low as 13.25. Of five specimens from different localities in the Rocky Mountains, three reach or exceed 14.40, the extremes being 14.75 and 13.25. Of three specimens from the Arctic coast, one has a length of 13.40, and the others respectively 12.40 and 12.35. A single specimen from Russia has a length of 13.75. These I regard as being all unquestionably conspecific, though perhaps referable to two or three subspecies. Whether strictly so or not, we have the fact of the culmination in size in the region where the Grizzlies are most abundant, namely, in California; these two facts, greatest abundance and largest size, seeming to indicate this rfegion as presenting the most favorable conditions for the existence of these animals. The Rocky Mountain specimens average considerably smaller than the Californian; and though the species is pretty frequent here it is far less abundant than on the Pacific slope, especially in California and Oregon. The Franklin Bay specimens, representing the so- called " Barren Ground Bear", and indistinguishable from the true arctos of the Old World, are smaller even than the specimens from the Rocky Mountains. |
