230 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



non, I found that the light Isabella-colored bear [Ursus syriacus 

 H. and E.] , with the dimensions of the original description, inhabited 

 only the green shrubbery of the Anti-Lebanon, while the smaller 

 brown bear [U. syriacus schmitzi Matschie] inhabited only the bare 

 snow-fields of the Lebanon. I saw examples of both subspecies in 

 nature and still have specimens from Lebanon. To-day the bear 

 has disappeared not only from Palestine, but perhaps also from 

 Syria. 



"Last year I became convinced that the Mesopotamian bear in- 

 habiting the Jebel Abdul-Aziz [in the present Syria; lat. 36 30' 

 N., long. 40 30' E.] represents a distinct subspecies." 



F. S. Bodenheimer writes (in Hit., March, 1937) that the animal 

 is now extinct in Palestine and Lebanon but probably still survives 

 in Anti-Lebanon in small numbers. He adds that protection is most 

 highly desirable. 



Pocock states (1932, p. 793) that "the bears of Asia Minor and 

 Syria merely differ from the typical Brown Bear of Europe in being 

 on the average paler in colour, intermediate specimens occurring 

 in the Caucasus and perhaps in northern Persia." He records speci- 

 mens from Smyrna and from Sumela, 30 miles south of Trebizond, 

 Turkey. 



Blanford (1876, pp. 46-47) gives the following account of bears 

 in Persia: 



"Major St. John, . . . who has seen several Elburz bears, assures 

 me that, although they are darker than the true Ursus Syriacus 

 which is found in Southern Persia, they are much paler in colour 

 than the common bear of Europe. . . . ' 



Ursus syriacus "is, as Major St. John assures me, the bear of 

 South-western Persia. It is not the bear of Baluchistan, but is said 

 to be found between Bampur and Bam. It is found* pretty commonly 

 in the neighbourhood of Shiraz and in the hills bordering on Meso- 

 potamia." 



To this St. John adds (in Blanford, 1876, p. 47) : "This bear is 

 found throughout the mountains of Western and Northern Persia, 

 possibly extending to Khorassan. In many places watchers are set 

 at night to keep the bears from the ripening grapes." 



Atlas Bear; Crowther's Bear 



URSUS CROWTHERI Schinz 



Urs[us~\ Crowtheri Schinz, Synopsis Mammalium, vol. 1, p. 302, 1844. (Based 

 upon "the Bear of Mount Atlas," Blyth, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1841, 

 p. 65; type locality, "the foot of the Tetuan mountains, about twenty-five 

 miles from that of the Atlas.") 



The bear of North Africa is almost a mythical species, for no 

 specimen has ever reached a museum. No very definite news of the 



