The Brown Bear 



THE BROWN BEAR 



{Ursus arctus isahellinus and U. a. shanorum) 



Native Names. — Barf- ka - rinch and Lai- bhalu, 

 Hindustani ; Kunia-haput^ Kashmiri ; Drengmo^ 

 Balti ; Drin-mor, Ladaki ; Brabu^ Kishtawari ; 

 Dab, Nepalese ; Tom-khaina, Tibetan. 



(Plate ix, fig. 8) 



Although often showing a white collar or gorget on 

 the throat, bears, as a rule, are uniformly coloured 

 animals, distinguishable from the short-tailed panda by 

 the form of their molar teeth, which are long and 

 narrow, with the last in the upper jaw elongated, and 

 exceeding in length the one in front. 



The snow, or red bear, as, by literal translation of 

 its Hindustani names, the Himalayan animal is called 

 by sportsmen, cannot be regarded as more than a local 

 race of the brown bear of Europe, distinguished (especi- 

 ally when young) by its generally paler fur and its 

 somewhat inferior size. Usually the colour of the long 

 winter coat is pale creamy brown, or isabelline fawn, in 

 fairly young individuals, and these sometimes show a 

 white gorget, stated to be also visible in older indi- 

 viduals immediately after the assumption of the short 

 summer fur. Very old animals, more especially males, 

 become, however, much darker, and sometimes have a 

 silvery tinge, owing to the tips of the hairs becoming 

 white. The skull of the kunia-haput, as this bear is 

 called in Kashmiri, is characterised by the elevation of 

 the forehead, so that in a profile view an obtuse angle 

 is formed immediately in front of the eyes ; another 

 feature being the distinct hollow at the junction of the 

 nasal with the frontal bones. As a rule, the claws are 

 pale-coloured, or even white. 



Most Kashmir brown bears do not exceed 6 feet in 



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