BEAR. 



or warm localities can be considered as formidable 

 animals. 



10. The Malay Sear (Ursus Malayanus). This 

 species is found in the Oriental Archipelago and the 

 Malay Peninsula, and it probably exists in many parts 

 of India, It is but a small animal, the body seldom 

 measuring as much as four feet, so that it is not one- 

 eighth of the weight of the largest specimens of the 

 polar bear. Its feet are smaller, and its legs taper 

 more than those of most bears ; but though rather 

 low on the legs, it is a stout animal. The prevailing 

 colour is black ; the hair short and stiff, but smooth 

 and shining, except on the ridge of the neck and 

 back, where it is frizzled ; the nose, and more or less 

 of the face, is rust coloured, and sometimes inclining 

 to grey ; and there is often & spot of a similar colour, 

 more or less conspicuous, over each eye, and another 

 near the corner of the mouth. There is also a cres- 

 cent-shaped spot of white on the breast or under the 

 neck. The snout is produced something in the same 

 manner as in the jungle bear, only the sides of the 

 production have more the appearance of appendages 

 to the nostrils. 



Malay Bear. 



The habits of this bear are also very similar to 

 those of the jungle bear. It is a climber, and in a 

 state of nature subsists chiefly upon fruits, and nearly 

 the same sort of fruits as the other. Like that it is 

 an animal of rather gentle manners ; but still it is 

 one of great strength, and might, as is the case with 

 all bears, do mischief if irritated. It is, however, very 

 easily tamed, and remarkably docile if duly fed and 

 properly attended to. Sir Stamford Raffles, when in 

 its native country, had a very tame one, which was 

 very fond of eating mangoes and drinking cham- 

 pagne, though it despised wines of less celebrated 

 growth. It played indiscriminately with the children 

 and the dogs, and was withal very gentle and good- 

 natured in its play ; but as it grew up it treated the 

 vegetable tribes with less mercy, for when it got into 

 the place where they were cultivated, it used to seize 

 the stems of large plantains with its paws, and wrench 

 them up by the roots. 



Such is a very slight outline of at least the promi- 

 nent species of this very interesting and, in many 

 respects, useful genus of animals. Some of the spe- 



cies that have been mentioned are probably only 

 varieties ; and there may be some omitted which 

 future observation may show to be really distinct 

 species. In the present state of our knowledge, 

 however, mistakes both ways are unavoidable, more 

 especially in the case of animals upon which tempera- 

 ture appears to have so much influence as it has upon 

 bears. In those cases mistakes being almost unavoid- 

 able, ought not to subject to very heavy censure those 

 who fall into them ; but the danger of so falling 

 ought to teach the utmost circumspection in managing 

 the information which we have, and stimulate to the 

 utmost vigilance in acquiring more. 



We have treated of those animals at something 

 more than the customary length for several reasons. 

 In the first place, they may be said to extend in lati- 

 tude over the entire quadrant ; and therefore we have 

 the means of observing the effects of all latitudes 

 and all climates upon them. Secondly, they are 

 every where not only animals of wild nature, but 

 of wild nature in a particular state, as regards the soil, 

 the climate, and its productions ; therefore their his- 

 tory becomes an index to a considerable portion of 

 the progressive history of the globe. Thirdly, they are 

 animals of wild nature only ; and, according to our 

 present notions at least, they cannot be brought use- 

 fully within the pale of domestication ; that is to say, 

 we cannot apply their strength, great as it is, to any 

 mechanical purpose ; and as they seem to be impa- 

 tient of restraint, they could not be kept for the sake 

 of their flesh so advantageously as the animals which 

 we at present rear for that purpose, even though a 

 mode of feeding them should be discovered by which 

 their flesh could be rendered as palatable. Fourthly, 

 bears are animals which are equally peculiar in their 

 structure and their habits ; and therefore by carefully 

 studying them we put ourselves in possession of many 

 of those general elements which are so serviceable in 

 working out those supplemental parts of natural his- 

 tory upon which direct observation furnishes us with 

 hints, but not with proofs. Their teeth are carnivor- 

 ous, but only partially so ; and their carnivorous 

 structure is more in the canines than in any of the 

 others, so that they are better fitted for wounding and 

 lacerating than for gnawing flesh. The absence of 

 clavicles gives them a wonderful strength in com- 

 pressing objects between their fore-legs, whether in 

 clasping that on which they climb, or in hugging their 

 enemies. The absence of the same bones admits of 

 much more play in the scapula than in animals which 

 have clavicles ; and thus a bear can reach further, and 

 also strike a severer blow than any other animal 

 having equal length and weight of paw. The great 

 size of their plantigrade feet is of great service to 

 them on rough or unstable surfaces. The northern 

 ones walk the surface of the snow with the same ease 

 as people walk when they have snow shoes on. The 

 same form enables them to support their heavy weight 

 upon twigs, or leaves, or grass ; so that when they 

 have to range among the bushes or the small trees for 

 berries, and the nests of wild bees and birds, they 

 walk much more lightly and with far less fatigue than 

 one would from the study of their apparently clumsy 

 form be apt to suppose. The same form of the feet, 

 and the fact that the whole length of the tarsi of the 

 hind ones is on the ground, and the first joint above 

 the ground, one with a forward flexure, as in the 

 human knee, gives them not a little of the same stabi- 

 lity on the hind feet which man himself possesses ; 



