B E A 



fe fc A 



the parties. I have been told that there is a man now 

 living in the neighbourhood of Edmonton-house, who was 

 attacked by a grisly bear, which sprang out of a thicket, 

 and with one stroke of its paw completely scalped him, lay- 

 ing bare the skull, and bringing the skin of the forehead 

 down over the eyes. Assistance coming up, the bear made 

 olF without doing him further injury, but the scalp not being 

 replaced, the poor man has lost his sight, although he 

 thinks his eyes are uninjured. Mr. Drummond, in his ex- 

 cursions over the Rocky Mountains, had frequent opportu- 

 nities of observing the manners of the grisly bears, and it 

 often happened that in turning the point of a rock or sharp 

 angle of a valley, he came suddenly upon one or more of them. 

 On such occasions they reared on their hind legs, and made 

 a loud noise like a person breathing quick, but much 

 harsher. He kept his ground, without attempting to molest 

 them ; and they on their part, after attentively regarding 

 him for some time, generally wheeled round and galloped 

 off; though, from their known disposition, there is little 

 doubt but he would have been torn in pieces, had he lost 

 his presence of mind and attempted to lly. When he dis- 

 covered them from a distance, he generally frightened them 

 away by beating on a large tin-box, in which he carried his 

 specimens of plants. He never saw more than four tuye- 

 ther, and two of these he supposes to have been cubs ; he 

 more often met them singly, or in pairs. He was only 

 once attacked, and then by a female, for the purpose of 

 allowing her cubs to escape. His gun on this occasion 

 missed fire, but he kept her at bay with the stock of it, 

 until some gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company, with 

 whom he was travelling at the time, came up and drove her 

 off. In the latter cud of June, 1826, he observed a male 

 caressing a female, and soon afterwards they both came 

 towards him, but whether accidentally, or for the purpose of 

 attacking him, he was uncertain. He ascended a tree, and 

 as the female drew near, lired at and mortally wounded her. 

 She uttered a few loud screams, which threw the male into 

 a furious rage, and he reared up against the trunk of the 

 tree in which Mr. Drummond was seated, but never at- 

 tempted to ascend it. The female, in the meanwhile re- 

 tiring to a short distance, lay down, and as the male was 

 proceeding to join her, Mr. Drummond shot him also. 

 From the size of their teeth aud claws, he judged them to 

 be about four years old. The cubs of a grisly bear can 

 climb trees, but when the animal is fully grown it is un- 

 able to do so, as the Indians report, from the form of its 

 claws.' 



The Rocky Mountains, and the plains to the eastward of 

 them, particularly, according to Mr. Drummond, the dis- 

 tricts which are interspersed with open prairies and grassy 

 hills, are the chief haunts of the grisly bears. To the 

 north they have been observed as far as 6 1 of latitude, and 

 it is supposed that they are to be found still farther. To the 

 south it is said that they extend as far as Mexico. The 

 cubs and the pregnant females hybernate, but the older 

 males often come abroad for food during winter. The fol- 

 lowing dimensions have been given of a den or winter re- 

 treat, ten feet in width, five feet in height, and six feet in 

 len trth. 



The fine grisly bear now in the Garden of the Zoological 

 Society in the Regent's Park was presented to George III. 

 by the Hudson's Bay Company, and was long a resident in 

 tin; Tower under the name of Martin, and latterly of Old 

 Martin. His present Majesty William IV. graciously pre- 

 si-ntt-d it to the Zoological Society with the rest of the royal 

 tion. 



The brown bear mentioned by Pennant, on the authority 

 of Condamine and Ulloa, as an inhabitant of the Peruvian 

 Andes, must not be forgotten; but it is not known whether 

 it belongs to this species. Cuvier thinks that the Peruvian 

 bears of Acosta and Garcilasso may have been the great 

 ant bears (Myrmecnphaga). It is not impossible that 

 these Peruvian bears may have been Spectacled Bean (Ur- 

 tus trnatus). 



ASIATIC BEARS. 



The Siberian Bear, Ursus cnllaris of F. Cuvier, ap- 

 proaches closely to the brown bear(f/r.su# Arclox). The 

 hair in quality and colour is much the same with that of the 

 brown bear, with the distinction of a large white collar 

 which passes over the upper part of the back and the 

 shoulders, and is completed upon the breast. It is not im- 

 probable that this may be a variety of the brown bear. 



t 



Thibet Bear. M. Duvauccl discovered this species, Ur- 

 sus Thibetanus of F. Cuvier, in the mountains of Sylhet, 

 and Dr. Wallich found it in those of Nepaul. The Thibet 

 bear has the neck remarkably thick, and the head flat- 

 tened, the forehead and muzzle forming almost a straight 

 line. The ears arc of a large size. Its clumsy limbs sup- 

 port a compact body, and the claws are comparatively weak. 

 Its general colour is black ; but the lower lip is white, and 

 there is a large mark of the same colour, somewhat in the 

 form of the letter Y, supposing the stem of the letter to be 

 placed in the middle of the breast, and the forks to pass up 

 in front of the shoulders. In bulk it is about intermediate 

 between the sloth bear (Prochilus labiatus) and the Ma- 

 layan bear (Ursus Malayanus). Mr. Bennett, in his Tower 

 Menagerie, gives a figure and description of one which was 

 brouglH from Sumatra, and could not be prevailed on to 

 touch flesh either raw or cooked, bread and fruits forming 

 his only food. In his disposition he was moderately tame, 

 and particularly fond of play. 



[Trails Tlnbct;lt:u;.] 



Isabella-coloured Bear, Ursus Isabellinus. Dr. Hors- 

 field has described this species in the Transactions of the 

 Linnrpun S cii'fy, from a skin forwarded from the mountains 

 of Nepaul. The skull had been removed, but the front 

 teeth in both jaws and the claws remained. 



' Our animal,' says Dr. Horsfield, ' is of a habit decidedly 

 different from that of several species of Ursus from tho 

 same part of the world, which have been recently added to 

 the systematic catalogues, namely, the Ursus Thibetanus, 

 the Urnus labiatus, and the Ursus Malayanus. All these 

 have a jet-black fur, a semilunar mark of a white colour on 

 the breast, and other peculiarities affording types of sub- 

 genera, among which Prochilus and Helarctos have beert 

 defined. Our animal, on the contrary, appears to resemble 



NO. 216. 



[THE PENNY CYCLOPEDIA.] 



VOL. IV.-N 



