CARNIVORA. 233 



of long semi-erect hair on the nape and sides of the 

 neck, with a white crescent under the throat, but 

 not so low down between the fore-arms as in the 

 sun bears. The only species known, is remarkable 

 for its powers of smell and sagacity. The old blind 

 specimen at Paris, having been removed to a new 

 cell, soon discovered that one of the pannels of the 

 partition would slide upwards ; and we have watch- 

 ed him, for a quarter of an hour together, in the act 

 of getting his claws under the edge and raise it up, 

 always with the intention of passing into the next 

 cell, which was empty ; arid, of course, as soon as 

 he withdrew his paws, to walk forward, the pannel 

 would slide down, still renewing the same manoeuvre 

 again and again. It is this species, also, which in 

 India is accused to have occasionally attacked single 

 travellers, and by whole families to have munched 

 the hands and feet of their victim, breaking and 

 crushing the bones, and then sucking the limbs, al- 

 most reduced to a pulp, with little laceration of the 

 skin. Captain Williamson attests being witness to 

 an event of this kind * in the vicinity of Dacca, 

 where they were formerly numerous. Colonel Sykes 

 found them in the Deccan, seeming every where to 

 delight in the wildest rocky mountain forests, climb- 

 ing trees with more activity than true bears, and not 

 unfrequently showing their wild and gamboling an- 

 tics while they run in the path before the traveller. 

 Proch. labiatus. The Bauloo, Sloth Bear, Aswail 

 of the Mahrattas. This species has also been called 

 * Oriental Field Sports, Vol. II. " The death of the Bear." 



