15 



I do not think, that I have ever seen mentioned in print the pecu- 

 liar melancholy, Availing cry almost always uttered by a bear before 

 it dies ; most other wild animals die without an outcry except a 

 hare when seized, or sometimes a deer when shot, but to the latter 

 in such cases, I have always given credit for having been hit 

 through the lungs, or some air passage which makes the scream 

 involuntary ; I am sure it was so in one case with a samber I 

 killed. I do not of course allude to the angry grunt, roar or snort 

 of alarm or defiance with which a large beast, after his kind, 

 receives bullet or spear thrust ; but a bear although, up to the last, 

 he receives such punishment without any further sign than loss of 

 temper, no sooner makes up his mind to die, than he utters most 

 melancholy and pitiable lamentations. I feel sure that any sports- 

 man will bear me out in this. 



There was in Madras in 1867 an albino, or rather dirty-white, 

 bear led about by some jugglers who said that it had been caught 

 in the Salem district, 



Jerdon does not at page 71, give bears credit for much cunning 

 when he says that " It has been noticed that if caught in a noose 

 " or snare, if they cannot break it by force ; they never have the 

 " intelligence to bite the rope in two, but remain until they die or 

 " are killed." About this I know nought, but the natives of Goom- 

 soor say that unless a bear, or a wild hog is driven rapidly into a 

 net it will always escape these toils, as either of these animals is so 

 cunning that he will lift the net up with his snout, and so pass 

 underneath. The three unlucky bears mentioned at page 24 and 

 which were so unfairly poached, certainly did their best to bite 

 through the nets which were considerably damaged. I can corro- 

 borate what is said by Mr. Elliot at page 73 of Jerdon as to the food 

 of bears, particularly as to their partiality for the seeds of "cassia 

 fistula," they are likewise very fond of mangoes. The long mango 

 grove at Nowgaum near Russelcondah, during the season, always 

 held several bears at night ; but it is strange that neither he nor 

 Mr. Jerdon allude to the fondness of bears for sugar-cane and the 

 damage done by them in fields of this plant. 



In Goomsoor and other parts of the Ganjam district Avhere bears 

 abound they do considerable damage to the sugar-cane plantations 



