The Short-Tailed Panda 



by that explorer from the district of Moupin and now 

 exhibited in the Paris Museum of Natural History, 

 being long the only known examples of this animal in 

 Europe. In 1896 two skins, with portions of the 

 skeletons, were, however, procured by Mr. Rothschild, 

 one of which is in the museum at Tring, while the 

 second is exhibited in the British (Natural History) 

 Museum. Three years later other examples were 

 brought to England by Mr. F. W. Styan from 

 Szechuen, North- West China. 



Apart from its curious colouring, and the greater 

 width and shortness of its head, the short-tailed panda 

 is very like a small bear. It is true that it has a 

 distinct tail, instead of a mere vestige of that appendage, 

 but this alone would not justify its separation from the 

 bear family ; neither would the fact that the soles of 

 the feet are clothed with fur, instead of being naked, 

 necessarily involve such separation, seeing that there is 

 a thin coating of hair on those of the polar bear. The 

 skull and teeth, as well as the bones of the skeleton, 

 are, however, so essentially unlike those of a bear, and 

 approximate so closely to those of the Himalayan 

 panda, that there can be little question as to the near- 

 ness of the relationship between the two animals. 



The head and skull of most bears are long and 

 narrow, with a nearly straight or little-arched profile ; 

 and the upper cheek-teeth likewise conform to this 

 type, being considerably longer than broad. In the 

 short-tailed panda, on the other hand, the head and 

 skull are comparatively short and wide posteriorly, with 

 a remarkable convex and sloping profile, while the 

 upper cheek-teeth have broad, nearly square crowns, 

 with a curiously complicated arrangement of cusps and 

 ridges on their grinding surfaces. In all these respects 

 the present animal approximates to the Himalayan 

 panda, from which it differs by having forty instead of 

 only thirty-eight teeth. It is true indeed that the skull ot 

 the Malay bear makes some approach to the panda type 



369 2 B 



