The Brown Bear 



parent, was quite touching. Even on observing us as 

 we approached, they seemed unwilHng to leave her. 

 When they at last made up their mind to do so, they 

 merely retired into an adjacent patch of wood, where 

 they continued their whining lamentations, occasionally 

 venturing out a few yards to stand upright and watch 

 us as we ruthlessly stripped their dam of her hairy coat, 

 and did not take their final departure until we gave 

 chase, thinking we might capture them. Although too 

 small to shoot, they were quite knowing enough not to 

 allow themselves to be caught." 



In the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 

 1906, Mr. O. Thomas described the skin and skull 

 of a bear from the Shan States, sent home by Lt.-Col. 

 A. Alcock, then Superintendent of the Indian Museum, 

 Calcutta. This bear lived for a short time in the pos- 

 session of Mr. Rutledge, an animal dealer, who on its 

 death presented the body to the Indian Museum. No 

 bear had previously been recorded trom this part of Asia ; 

 and the specimen proved to be a member of the Ursus 

 arctus group, apparently nearly allied to U. a. yesoensis, of 

 Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan, but evidently 

 representing a different race, which it was proposed to 

 call Ursus arctus shanorum. This bear is small in size, 

 with the general colour dark brown ; the hairs of the 

 sides being tipped with grey, and an ill-defined dark 

 line running down the middle of the back. The skull 

 is of the long, narrow, vaulted shape of that of U . a. 

 yesoensis, but much smaller, with the nasals abruptly 

 and strongly narrowing in their posterior half. The 

 breadth across the postorbital processes is unusually 

 small ; the palate is narrow ; and the premaxillas do 

 not extend back to the level of the back of the tusks 

 or canines. The teeth are remarkably short and broad 

 in outline, the first premolar being very broad and 

 heavy, nearly as broad as long, with low cusps and a 

 low broad internal lobe ; while the first molar is rather 

 shorter, and yet actually broader, than in yesoensis. 



375 



