230 ORDER V. 



the females, are disposed to hibernate during the 

 prevalence of snow and cold, without taking food, 

 and there produce the young, which are fostered for 

 many days, before the mother rises to break out of 

 her retreat. It appears to be a singular fact, that 

 all the individuals slain during the period of repose, 

 have the excretory passage stopped up, or plugged, 

 by what in Norway is called the tappen, or plug 

 found in the rectum ; and, it seems, where hiber- 

 nation is interrupted by captivity, cub bears so 

 situated, are liable to a temporary blindness. This 

 we have witnessed in the case of a young black 

 bear, brought from Quebec late in the autumn : 

 the nictitating membrane, early during the passage 

 home, spread over both eyes, and became fixed, 

 although the animal was as lively as ever, being 

 permitted to go free about the ship ; he could, in 

 in this state, walk over the sides into the chains, 

 climb up the ropes, and was a full match for the 

 tricks the young midshipmen played him, by retort- 

 ing occasionally with extraordinary quickness and 

 precision, greatly damaging their sea clothes : he 

 trusted entirely to the acuteness of his olfactory 

 sense during the whole period of his blindness, 

 which continued until the last days of February. 



Sub-genus HELARCTOS, Horsf. The Sun Bears. 

 First instituted by Dr. Horsfield ; and there is a 

 figure engraved by Howitt after our drawing, in 

 1820, taken from the specimen sent to Lady Banks. 

 The Sun Bears differ from the other sub-genera by 

 being clothed with a short close fur : they have the 



