MAMMALS. G73 



striking and homely. It is of a retiring disposition, and yet when cornered 

 or excited it is far from a contemptible adversary. It always .strikes for 

 the face and eyes with its long and sharp claws. It feeds on wild honey, 

 white ants, and fruit, and when occasion offers, on other substances, but 

 rarely on flesh. It lives in the caves and hi the hollow trees of India and 

 Ceylon ; it climbs well and prefers not to leave the jungle. In captivity 

 it is mild and about as intelligent as any other bear. 



In the same region, and also ranging farther to the east, is the bruang, 

 or sun-bear, a smaller but similarly marked species which makes a really 

 amusing and interesting pet. It displays much affection and is almost 

 invariably good-tempered. In the menagerie it shares the honors with the 

 monkeys, it is so active and so strange in its actions. It will raise itself on 

 its hind legs and bow its body with all the dignity if not the grace of a 

 Chesterfield, and then it will go through a series of facial gymnastics which 

 would put any clown, even George Fox, the famous Humpty Dumpty, to 

 shame. Then its somersaults are things to be seen ; they cannot be 

 described, they are so ludicrously clumsy. All of these acts are natural, 

 and do not proceed from any training. The animal is forced to go through 

 them in just the same way as the monkeys are. He cannot help himself, 

 he is so brimful of animal spirits. 



The bears form the central group of the bear-like forms. On the one 

 hand, we had the raccoon and the coaiti ; on the other side comes a much 

 larger series of forms, of which the weasels, skunks, badgers, and others 

 may be regarded as representatives. It is a very important family reck- 

 oned from the economic standpoint ; for to some of its members we owe 

 the most valuable of furs, — ermine, sable, martin, mink, sea-otter, etc., 

 — which will be alluded to in their proper place. It is also remarkable 

 for the development of glands near the vent, which secrete a strongly 

 odorous fluid, which in some, as the weasels and martins, seems to be 

 principally of use in calling the sexes together ; but which in the skunks, 

 pole-cats, stinking badgers, and the like, becomes a very important means 

 of defence. 



The sea-otter of the coast and islands of the northern Pacific is the 

 most peculiar member of the group, fitted as it is for an aquatic life and a 

 diet of fish and shell-fish. It lacks the sharp-edged teeth of the others, 

 and it has its feet webbed, the hinder pair being broad, so that the animal 

 bears no little resemblance to a seal. In color it is a 'deep liver-brown,' 

 the surface being silvered by the longer and stiffer gray hairs, which 

 extend beyond the rest of the pelage. It was first brought to the notice of 

 the scientific world, in 1751, by Steller, the Russian naturalist who accom- 

 panied Bering to Kamtchatka and the Bering Sea. It had been known 



