BRO ]VN BEAR 463 



THE BROWN BEAR 



{Ursus a)rti(s) 



In the case of such a famihar animal as the brown bear, it will be 

 unnecessary to give anything in the way of general description, more 

 especially since the species is represented in Africa merely by a 

 practically unknown race in the Atlas mountains of Morocco. Neither 

 is there any necessity to indicate the points by which the bear family, 

 or Ursidce (of which the Atlas bear is the sole African representative), 

 differs from the Canidce or dog tribe. 



The first rumours of the existence of a bear in the Atlas appear 

 to have reached Europe in the earlier part of the nineteenth century 

 during, or shortly after, the invasion of Algeria by the French. More 

 definite information was afforded by an Indian official, Mr. Crowther, 

 who in the year 1841 appears to have seen a female Atlas bear. 

 According to his notes, the animal is somewhat inferior in size to an 

 American black bear, but of rather stouter build, with a shorter and 

 blunter face, and unusually short, although thick, claws. The muzzle 

 is described as black, and the shaggy hair black or blackish brown 

 above and orange rufous beneath. Mr. Crowther's specimen was seen 

 at the foot of the Tetwan range, about five-and-twenty miles from the 

 Atlas ; and the animal was reported even at that date to be very rare. 

 Mr. Edward Blyth in 1841 suggested the name of Ursus croivtheri for 

 the Atlas bear ; a name which — on the supposition that it is a race of 

 the European brown bear — may be amended to Ursus arctiis croivtheri. 

 From that day to this, so far as I am aware, nothing has ever been heard 

 of the Atlas bear. 



In view of the apparent rarity of the animal, it is important to 

 mention that fossilised remains of bears have been discovered in 

 caverns in north-western Africa, as well as in the rock-fissures of 

 Gibraltar. A small kind of bear seems also to have existed down to 

 a very recent date in Corsica. 



Any information with regard to the brown bear of the Atlas would 

 be of great interest, since naturalists do not even know whether it is still 

 existing ; while the characteristics of the race have never been properly 

 defined. 



