CLASSIFICATION OF BEARS
Scientific naturalists, like other learned gentlemen in large spectacles, have a way (or it sometimes seems as though they had) of using very big words about very small matters. For instance, what they might describe as “an aquatic larva of Rana catesbiana or other Batrachian,” we would call a tadpole. And so on through the list. But we are obliged to assume that they have excellent reasons for their choice of language, and there is no getting around the fact that if we wish to profit by their wisdom we have to learn at least the simple rules of their speech.
We ought, for example, to understand that when a new animal, or a new variety of an old one, is discovered, or rather when it is officially described and listed by a naturalist, it is given a special Latin name which, added to the Latin name of the family to which it belongs, thenceforth serves to identify it among all students of natural history. Moreover, as a compliment to the man who thus stood god-parent for it in the scientific world, his name is added, in parentheses, to these Latin designations. Thus the Rocky Mountain grizzly bear is known to technical fame as Ursus horribilis (Ord), which, being interpreted, means that this much-misrepresented member of the bear tribe was first described officially by George Ord and was named by him “The Terrible.”
There have been many attempts to classify the North American bears; and from time to time, as new facts come to light, or new students advance new theories as to the relationships of the different species, these lists are altered. But before proceeding to give my own observations upon the actual habits and characteristics of the common Black Bear, the Ursus americanus (Pallas) of the text-books, I reproduce (without recourse) a list of what appear to be the most generally recognized varieties of bears inhabiting the North American continent.
The Polar Bear. Ursus maritimus (Desm.). Polar regions generally.
THE ALASKAN BROWN BEARS
The Kodiak Bear. Ursus middendorffi (Merriam). Kodiak Island, Alaska. The largest of all living bears.
The Yakutat Bear. Ursus dalli (Merriam). Yakutat Bay and seaward slopes of the St. Elias range.
The Admiralty Bear. Ursus eulophus (Merriam). Admiralty Islands, Alaska.
The Peninsula Bear. Ursus merriami (Allen). Portage Bay, Alaska Peninsula.
THE GRIZZLY BEARS
The Rocky Mountain Grizzly. Ursus horribilis (Ord). Rocky Mountains from Mexico to Alaska.
The Sonora Grizzly. Ursus horribilis horriæus (Baird). South-western New Mexico.
The Barren Ground Grizzly. Ursus richardsoni (Mayne Reid). Great Slave Lake regions and Barren Grounds.
THE BLACK BEARS
The American Black Bear. Ursus americanus (Pallas).
Scornborger’s Black Bear. Ursus americanus scornborgeri (Bangs). Labrador.
Queen Charlotte Islands Black Bear. Ursus americanus carlottæ (Osgood).
Desert Black Bear. Ursus americanus eremicus (Merriam). Coahuila, Mexico.
Florida Black Bear. Ursus floridanus (Merriam).
Louisiana Black Bear. Ursus luteolus (Griffith).
North-western Black Bear. Ursus altifrontalis (Elliot). Clallam County, Washington.
Alberta Black Bear. Ursus hylodromus (Elliot).
The Fighting Bear. Ursus machetes (Elliot). Chihuahua, Mexico.
OTHER MEMBERS OF THE BLACK-BEAR GROUP
Emmons’s Glacier Bear. Ursus emmonsi (Dall). Mt. St. Elias region, Alaska.
The Inland White Bear. Ursus kermodii (Hornaday). South-western British Columbia.