THE BROWN BEAR 



(Ursus arctos) 



THE Brown Bear is the Bear par excellence with most people, and it 

 certainly has the widest distribution of any of the family, being 

 found all along the northern parts of the Old World, while it re- 

 appears in Alaska as a very large race, even superior in size to the 

 famous Grizzly, which takes the Brown Bear's place in part of North 

 America. In historic times the Brown Bear inhabited countries from 

 which it has since been nearly or completely extirpated ; thus, all students 

 of Virgil remember his mention of the " Libyan she-bear," although 

 the Bear is nearly extinct in North Africa, and other Roman writers 

 remind us of the former existence of the Bear in Scotland. The 

 Scotch Bears were of peculiar ferocity, for the Romans of the Empire 

 took the trouble to send all the way to this remote country of Cale- 

 donia for Bears savage enough to act as executioners to Christian 

 martyrs. In Africa south of the Sahara there are no Bears of any 

 sort; nor are there any in the Australian region. 



The Brown Bear displays a good deal of local variation in its wide 

 range, besides much individual difference; the coat of some is nearly 

 black, while others verge on silver-grey. The races inhabiting Syria 

 and the Himalayas are of a light drab, with a white crescent on the 

 chest, which, by the way, is commonly found in young individuals of 

 the species in Europe. The Syrian Bear is always comparatively small, 

 but it can be formidable enough, and its encounters with mankind 

 are well known to Bible students. This Bear, however, varies much 

 in disposition in different parts of its range, and in the Himalayas, 

 where it is called "Red Bear" or "Snow Bear," to distinguish it 

 from the Himalayan Black Bear, it is not regarded as dangerous to man, 

 and may even be seen feeding close by Sheep or Goats. Indeed, as a 

 whole, the Brown Bear, like most of its family, is a vegetable-eater 



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