Japanese Black Bear 301 



The range of this wild dog extends from Eastern Siberia and Amurland 

 to Turkestan and the Altai. According to Dr. Radde, it is somewhat 

 locally distributed, and generally associates in packs, numbering from about 

 ten to lifteen individuals ; each pack being led by an old dog. Occasionally, 

 however, solitary individuals may be met with. It is but seldom seen on 

 the open steppes, preferring the dense mountain forests. It is fully as lierce 

 and cunning as its southern cousins, preying chiefly upon deer, which it 

 sometimes drives completely away from their ordinary haunts. 



THE JAPANESE BLACK BEAR 



( Ui'siis japonicus) 



The black bear of Japan was distinguished from the Himalayan Ursus 

 torquatus by its describer Schlegel on account of its not possessing the long 

 fringe of hair on the throat distinctive of the latter, and likewise by the 

 white gorget so conspicuous in that species being either totally absent or 

 present only in the young condition. Apparently the Japanese bear is also 

 a smaller animal than its Himalayan cousin. Whether the differences 

 between the two are not rather those of race than of species may, for the 

 present at all events, be left an open question. 



Recently Dr. Matschie ^ has described a black bear from Japan living at 

 Berlin as a new species, under the name of Ursus rexi, on the ground of its 

 preserving the white gorget of the typical U. torquatus^ and likewise a 

 white patch on the chin. And he suggests that each of the islands of the 

 Japan group may be inhabited by a particular kind of black bear. In place 

 of indicating a distinct species (or race), the specimen described by Dr. 

 Matschie is rather suggestive of a closer relationship between the black 

 bears of the Himalaya and Japan than has previously been considered the 

 case. 



' S.B. Ges. naturfor. Berlin, 1897, p. 72. 



