Game Animals of India, etc. 



reveal the fact that he3.r-spoor is shorter and wider than 

 that left by the human foot. 



Jungly hill districts, where there are numerous 

 small isolated outliers at the foot of main ranges, are 

 the favourite haunts of the sloth-bear, the most favoured 

 situations being those where numerous large boulders 

 cover the surface of the ground, or where rocks are 

 fissured by ravines and crevasses, or hollowed into 

 caverns. In such cool retreats, protected from the 

 fierce rays of the sun, and safe from the attacks of 

 insect plagues, the bears pass the hottest hours of the day, 

 issuing forth at evening to feed. When the ground is 

 of such a nature as not to show their footprints, the 

 presence of these animals may frequently be revealed 

 by the curious humming sound proceeding from the 

 depth of the rocks, produced, it is said, by the bears 

 sucking their paws. Although the greater part of the 

 day is usually passed idly in such subterranean retreats, 

 in cloudy weather, and more especially at the com- 

 mencement of the rainy season, when the hardness of 

 the ground during the preceding hot weather has pre- 

 vented them from obtaining a sufficient supply of 

 insects by digging, they may be seen abroad at all hours 

 in districts where they are little disturbed, busily 

 engaged in searching for food. It should not, however, 

 be imagined that rock-fissures and caverns are the only 

 places where sloth-bears are to be found, for, in the 

 absence of these, they are content to lie hidden in scrub- 

 jungle, at the root of a clump of a tall bamboo, or even 

 in the open beneath some shady tree. 



Except when the female is suckling her cubs, both 

 sexes may be seen in company, but when three bears 

 are observed together, these generally comprise a female 

 and a couple of cubs ; and if it be a fact that triplets 

 are occasionally produced, a party of four might some- 

 times come under the same description. The females 

 display great affection for their offspring, carrying them 

 on their backs during their nocturnal prowls, until of 



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