MELURSUS. 203 



white ants furnish food for the Indian bear. In their nocturnal 

 rambles these animals visit many fruit-trees, sometimes climbing 

 amongst the branches to shake down the fruit, or standing up and 

 dragging it down with their paws ; they also turn over stones to 

 search for insects and larva?, ascend trees to plunder bees' nests, 

 and dig out the nests of white ants, sometimes making holes 5 or 

 6 feet deep for this purpose. These holes are easily recognized by 

 the marks of the bears' claws. 



Tickell says (and his views are confirmed by others) : " The 

 power ot' suction in the bear, as well as of propelling wind from 

 its mouth, is very great. It is by this means it is enabled to pro- 

 cure its common food of white ants and larva) with ease. On 

 arriving at an ant-hill the bear scratches away with his fore feet 

 until he reaches the large combs at the bottom of the galleries. 

 He then, with violent puffs, dissipates the dust and crumbled 

 particles of the nest, and sucks out the inhabitants of the comb by 

 such forcible inhalations as to be heard at two hundred yards 

 distance or more. Larva?, especially the large; ones of the Ateuchus 

 sacer, are in this way sucked out from great depths under the 

 soil." 



In Southern India bears are fond of the fermented juice of the 

 wild date-palm, and climb the trees to get at the pots in which it 

 is collected. The animals are said at times to get very drunk with 

 palm-juice. They are very fond, too, of sugar-cane, and do much 

 damage to the crops ; they also occasionally eat A r arious pulses, 

 maize, and some other kinds of corn, and cultivated fruits such 

 as mangoes. 



According to Tickell, they rob birds' nests and eat the eggs. I 

 have never heard an authenticated case of their killing larger 

 animals for food, and as a rule they do not touch flesh ; but Sander- 

 son records an instance in which a muntjac that had been shot and 

 left in the jungle was partly devoured by one, and he says that 

 they often gnaw dry bones of cattle. McMaster also relates how 

 the body of a bullock that had been killed by a tiger was pulled to 

 pieces and devoured by two large bears. Young cubs reared in 

 confinement eat flesh readily, cooked or raw. 



The bears have a peculiar habit of sucking their paws and of 

 making a humming sound at the same time, and the present species 

 is much addicted to the practice. According to Tickell some tame 

 young bears that he saw would suck any person's hand in the same 

 manner as their own paws. 



The eyesight of Melursus ur sinus is by no means good, and it 

 has a peculiarly comical way of peering about for intruders, that 

 gives the idea of its being short-sighted. Its hearing is also, I 

 believe, far from acute. Its sense of smell is much better ; by 

 scent it can detect honeycombs in a tree overhead, and nests of 

 termites or larvae of beetles at some depth below the surface of 

 the ground. In smelling about for food, for instance when 

 visiting fruit-trees at night, it makes a peculiar puffing sound that 

 can be heard at a considerable distance. 



