MAMMALS. 237 



offers is a robber of the fowl-house to an almost incredible extent. 

 It is also a persistent robber of bee-hives. In colour it is of a dark 

 brown above, and paler below, with a white chin and throat and 

 yellow breast. It weighs from 4lbs. to 61bs. The yellow-bellied 

 weasel {Putorius cathia) is a pretty creature and not uncommon, about 

 3 — 4,000 feet. It is usually in parties of about half-a-dozen, and the 

 leader is the very incarnation of courage and daring, and will attack 

 anything, however large, in defence of its family. It is of a uniform 

 dark brown colour above, yellow below, and weighs about 6 oz. 

 Hodgson mentions that it "is exceedingly prized by the Nepalese for 

 its service in ridding liouses of rats," and that it is easily tamed, and 

 is trained by the rich "to attack large fowls, geese, and even goats and 

 sheep. So soon as it is loosed it rushes up the fowl's tail or the 

 goat's leg, and seizes the great artery of the neck, nor ever quits its 

 hold till the victim sinks under exhaustion from loss of blood." Others 

 are common, but in the larger rivers only. 



The cat-bear {Aklurus fulgens) occurs from about 7,000 feet 

 upwards. It is a vegetable feeder and easily tamed. It is of a 

 reddish colour above, darker below, and the greater part of the face 

 is white and the tail is ringed. Full grown males weigh from 7lbs. to 

 9|lbs., and measure about Z'^ feet from the snout to the tip of the 

 tail, which is nearly half-a-yard. It is one of the most interesting of 

 the Sikhim mammals. The brown bear ( Ursiis arcius) occurs at hifh 

 altitudes, rarely below 11-12,000 feet, and the Himalayan black bear 

 (Ursus torquatus) is common from there down to about 4,000 feet. 

 It is an undesirable neighbour, as it destroys large quantities of the 

 native crops, and at times kills cattle and occasionally the people 

 themselves. In many places, but especially in isolated fields in 

 the middle of jungle, the natives have to watch their crops when 

 ripening to prevent their destruction by monkeys and bears. One 

 way of frightening them is to have a clapper arrangement fixed in 

 the middle of the field with a string of cane, often several hundred 

 yards in length, led inside the dwelling-house from whence it is 

 worked, and every time a member of the household wakes up he is 

 expected to give the string a few lusty tugs to set the clapper goino-. 

 These are the only two bears recorded from Sikhim, but the Lepchas 

 are quite positive about there being a third species, resembling 

 torquatus in appearance, but considerably smaller, and occurring at 

 lower elevations ; down in fact to the bottoms of the lowest valleys, 

 but rarely ascending so high as 6,000 feet. It differs also in beino- 

 arboreal in its habits, and it is dreaded much more than the larger 

 one on account of its greater activity. It is probably Ursus malayanus^ 

 which is recorded from Java through to Chittagong and the Garo 

 Hills, and may be found as far west as Sikhim. 



