444 PERE DAVID'S BEAR CHAP. 



All Bears are largely vegetarian and insect feeders ; but this Bear 

 is especially so. It delights in the nests of Termites, and its 

 energy in destroying these hills for the sake of their inhabitants 

 is so great that the name of " sloth " appeared to Sir Samuel 

 Baker to be an entire misnomer. 



Aeiuropus, a rare Carnivore with but one species, A. melano- 

 leucus, is not inferior in size to the Brown Bear, and is dis- 

 tinguished by its largely white coloration. It was discovered in 

 the mountains of East Thibet by Pere David, and described by 

 Milne -Edwards 1 as a distinct and new genus, the discoverer 

 himself having named it as a species of Ursus. It is a vegetable- 



FIG. 226. Aelnropus inelanohucus. J*. 



feeding creature and bulky in form, with a rudimentary tail and 

 a short broad head ; in fact, more like a Bear than a Procyonid 

 (with which group it is placed by some). The width of the 

 head, however, is greater than in any other Carnivore ; it is 

 most closely approached in this by Aelurus and by Hyaena. 

 The molar formula is Pin | M f . The soles are hairy. There 

 is no alisphenoid canal. The molars are especially large and 

 multicuspid. 



Fossil Ursidae. The genus Ursus itself goes back to Plio- 

 cene times. The well-known Cave Bear, Ursus spelaeus of 



1 Nouv. Arch. Mus. vii. 1872, full. p. 92; and Jtecherches pour servir & I'histoire 

 naturelle des Mammiferes, 1868-1874, p. 321. This genus has quite recently 

 (Lankester, Trans. Linn. Soc. viii. 1901, p. 163) been definitely referred to the 

 Procyonidae. 



