WHITE BEAR AND BROWN BEAR 



CHAPTER V 



The Polar Bear. 



THE bear tribe in the strict sense, that is the 

 family Ursidae, differ from the other bear-like 

 creatures, which we have considered, by their larger 

 size and massive build. Even the little and very spry 

 Malay bear is big when compared with e.g. a glutton, 

 one of the largest of the non-ursine Arctoidea. Al- 

 though bears can dig, they cannot, or at any rate do 

 not, burrow holes for themselves like others of their 

 allies, such as the badger. The polar bear differs 

 from its congeners mainly in its very large size and 

 white fur. The Zoological Society have exhibited in 

 the past fairly large polar bears, and it will have been 

 noticed by those who saw some of those animals that 

 the fur was not of that brilliant whiteness with which it 

 is wont to be represented in works upon Natural history. 

 To set down this loss of pure colour to the " smuts " 

 prevalent even in Regent's Park would be incorrect ; 

 for the polar bear is really only pure white when young. 

 It gets brown with age, and the sailors who know it in 

 its haunts call it " Brownie." Darkening with age is a 

 common phenomenon in animals, and is even noticeable 

 in ourselves before, of course, the ultimate whitening of 

 senility. 



This bear has been also nicknamed the " farmer " 

 owing to its leisurely and agricultural gait. The 

 polar bear, " alone and palely loitering," in very 



no 



