i86 A NATURALIST IN WESTERN CHINA 



torquatus macneilli. He describes it as differing from the type 

 in the " greater length and softness of the hair, much smaller 

 size of the cheek-teeth, rather broader skuU, and distinctly 

 vaulted palate which is nearly flat in the typical Himalayan 

 race." The Szechuan race is founded on a male, and the skull 

 is in the British Museum, Natural History Branch. This 

 museum, Lydekker states, "is in possession of a skull of a 

 female collected by Berezovski," which he also refers to his 

 new race.i 



All this is clear and would be amply sufficient to settle the 

 identity of this animal, but for the fact of the same author 

 having, at an earlier date, referred a Black Bear from Szechuan 

 to the Malay Bruang, as a distinct race under the name of 

 Ursus malayanus wardi, in compliment to Rowland Ward, 

 from whom he received the skull. This latter (communicated, 

 I believe, by Mr. Mason Mitchell, erstwhile American Consul 

 at Chungking) came " from the Thibetan area," and " belonged 

 to a fully adult Bear of the Ursus malayanus type, as is evident 

 from its width and relative shortness ' ' (Lydekker, Game 

 Animals of India, p. 388). 



In 1905 Rowland Ward had received a skull and skin of 

 a Bear, " reputed to come from either eastern Thibet or the 

 north-western provinces of China." The skull " was clearly 

 that of a Bruang," but the skin had " much larger black hair 

 than the ordinary Malay Bear, with long fringes to the ears, 

 and the usual whitish gorget on the throat." " The entire 

 specimen was moimted and sold to the Bergen Museum as 

 Ursus torquatus " (Lydekker, loc. cit.). And on p. 389 : " The 

 skin of the Bergen specimen is stated to be more like that 

 of a Himalayan Black Bear than a Malay Bruang." 



From the above it would appear that there are two races 

 of Black Bear in Szechuan belonging to distinct species. 

 Without in the least doubting Mr. Lydekker' s correct identity 

 of the skulls in question, there are good grounds for being 

 sceptical about the occurrence of these two kinds of bears in 



^ M. M. Berezovski made his greatest and last collection of animals in the 

 region of the Kansu-Szechuan border, a little to the north-west of Lungan Fu, 

 from 1892-94, and in all probability this Bear was obtained there, since it is 

 common in that neighbourhood. 



