26 NOTES ON TEE KURIL ISLANDS. 



IV. 



FAUNA AND FLORA. 



Mammals, — The mammalia of the Kuril Islands are few. Those 

 found on Yetorup and Kunashir are identical with those of Yezo, 

 and those found on Paramushir and Shumshir are the same as those 

 of Kamchatka. 



The following is a list (probably incomplete) of the mammals of 

 the islands. 



Bears. — Ursios ferox (?), Yezo bear. 

 „ avctos, var. black bear. 

 „ avctos, var. brown bear. 



Wallace, in his "Island Life," calls the Yezo bear U. arctos. 

 Siebold, in his "Fauna Japonica," gives it as U.ferox, and he is 

 followed in this by Professor Rein. Probably neither is correct. 

 U. arctos is found on Shumshir and Paramushir. There are two 

 varieties, which the Kamchatkan natives distinguish by calling one 

 the black and the other the brown bear. They both attain a large 

 size, but there appears to be a considerable difference in the shape 

 of the skulls and in the teeth of the two varieties. 



The Japanese claim to have white bears in the northern part of 

 their country, and both Siebold and Rein give U. maritimus in 

 their lists. The polar bear, however, never gets to these parts ; it 

 is simply impossible for it to do so. No Arctic, or Bering Sea ice 

 even, ever gets to the Kuril Islands. The ice that reaches Yezo and 

 these islands is formed in the northern and north-western parts of 

 the Sea of Okotsk, where there are no polar bears. The Yetorup 

 natives told the writer that they sometimes obtained a luhite bear ; 

 but on closer inquiry he found that what they called a luhite bear 

 was the Yezo bear with a very light drah-coloured coat, which some 

 of them appear to get at a certain age or season. 



