Game Animals of India, etc. 



The lower teeth, are similarly broader throughout, the 

 last molar being unusually wide and square in shape, 

 and not narrowing behind. 



From the Hokkaido brown bear the Shan race is 

 distinguishable by its inferior size, and its smaller 

 and somewhat differently proportioned cheek-teeth, as 

 described above. 



Other specimens of this race of brown bear would 

 be of great interest. 



THE BLUE BEAR 



{Ursus pruinosus) 



(Plate ix, fig. 9) 



For years naturalists had a vague knowledge of the 

 existence of at least one species of bear in Tibet, but it 

 is only in comparatively recent times that the present 

 one has become fully known. In the year 1853 Mr. 

 Edward Blyth published a brief notice of a bear-skin 

 obtained by Dr. A. Campbell from Tibet, and sug- 

 gested that if it proved distinct from the Himalayan 

 black bear (of which he thought it might be a variety) 

 it should be known as Ursus pruinosus^ from its generally 

 hoary colour. In 1892 the British (Natural History) 

 Museum received the skin and skull of a small bear 

 from Tibet, now exhibited in the mammal gallery, 

 the skull of which showed that the animal had nothing 

 to do with the Himalayan black bear, but was somewhat 

 more nearly allied to the brown bear, although differ- 

 ing remarkably in colour. The animal (fig. ^^\ which 

 was not quite adult at the time of its death, appeared 

 to have been in the winter coat ; the hair on the back 

 and flanks being long, but elsewhere shorter. Although 

 all the hair is black at the base, much of it is white in 

 the terminal half, and the whole colouring is unlike 

 that of any other bear. On the face and fore-part of 



376 



