114 MAMMALIA OF INDIA. 
wounded in my district had their scalps torn. He says: ‘‘It has been 
noticed that if caught in a noose or snare, if they cannot break it by 
force they never have the intelligence to bite the rope in two, but remain 
till they die or are killed.” In captivity this bear, if taken young, 
is very quiet, but is not so docile as the Malayan species.* 
* Since writing the above, the following letter appeared in Zhe Asian of 
May 11, 1880:— 
‘THE HIMALAYAN BLACK BEAR? 
‘*Str,—Mr. Sterndale, in the course of his interesting papers on the Mammalia of 
British India, remarks of Ursus Tibetanus, commonly known as the Himalayan 
Black Bear, that ‘a wounded one will sometimes show fight, but in general it tries 
to escape.’ This description is not, I think, quite correct. As it would lead one to 
suppose that this bear is not more sawage than any other wild animal—the nature of 
most of the fere being to try to escape when wounded, zz/ess they see the hunter 
who has fired at them, when many will charge at once, and desperately. The Hima- 
layan Black Bear will not only do this a/most invariably, but often attacks men 
without any provocation whatever, and is altogether about the most fierce, vicious, 
dangerous brute to be met with either in the hills or plains of India, They inflict 
the most horrible wounds, chiefly with their paws, and generally—as Mr. Sterndale 
states—on the face and head. I have repeatedly met natives in the interior frightfully 
mutilated by encounters with the Black Bear, and cases in which Europeans have 
been killed by them are by no means uncommon. These brutes are totally different 
in their dispositions to the Brown Bear (Ursus Lsabellinus), which, however despe- 
rately wounded, will never charge. I believe there is no case on record of a hunter 
being charged by a Brown Bear ; or even of natives, under any circumstances, being 
attacked by one; whereas every one of your readers who has ever marched in the 
Himalayas must have come across many victims of the ferocity of Ursus Tibetanus. 
As I said before, this brute often, unwounded, attacks man without any provocation 
whatever. Two cases that I know of myself may not be without interest. An officer 
shooting near my camp was stalking some thar. He was getting close to them, when 
a Black Bear rushed out at him from behind a large rock on his right and above him. 
He was so intent on the thar, and the brute’s rush was so sudden, that he had barely 
time to pull from the hip, but he was fortunate enough to kill the animal almost at 
his feet. I heard this from him on the morning after it happened. On another 
occasion, I was shooting in Chumba with a friend. One evening he encamped at a 
village, about which there was, as usual, a little cultivation on terraces, and a good 
many apricot-trees. Lower down the khud there was dense jungle. The villagers 
told us that a Black Bear had lately been regularly visiting these trees, and generally 
came out about dusk, so that if we would go down and wait, we should be pretty sure 
of a shot. We went, and took up positions behind trees, about 200 yards apart, each 
of us having a man from the village with us. Intervening jungle prevented us from 
seeing each other. I had not been at my post more than ten minutes when I was 
startled by loud shrieks and cries from the direction of my companion. No shot was 
fired, and the coolie with me said that the bear had killed some one. In less than a 
minute I had reached the spot where I had left my friend. He, and the man with 
him, had disappeared ; but, guided by the shrieks, which still continued, I made my 
way into the thick cover in front of his post, and about fifty yards inside it, much to 
my relief, came upon him, rifle in hand, standing over the dead body of a man, over 
which two people—the coolie that had been with my friend and an old woman—were 
weeping, and shrieking loudly, ‘ Look out !’ said he, as I came up, ‘the bear has 
just killed this fellow!’ The first thing to be done was to carry him out into the 
open. I helped to do this, and directly I touched him I-felt that he was stone cold, 
and a further examination showed he must haye been dead some hours, That he had 
a 
