142 



THE INDIAN FAUNA 



parts, however, as for instance in eastern Bengal and the Dekkan, where some 

 forty or fifty years ago it was common, it is now exterminated. Wherever it 

 exists it betrays itself by the holes it digs in the ground when searching for ants, 

 by the marks of its claws on the trees it ascends for honey, and by its peculiar 

 trail. This bear goes about singly or in twos and threes ; the trios being generally 

 a female with two cubs. Now and then parties of four or five are met with. 

 • Bushes, forests, and mountains form the favourite haunts of this species ; and in 

 the hot season, while the monsoon is on and when the females have young, they 

 retire into caves, especially those formed by the weathering of the granitic gneiss, 

 of which many of the mountains of India consist. This gneiss, disintegrated into 



SLOTH-BEAR. 



large, loose, and broken blocks, forms large caves which are favourite resorts of 

 these bears, as they afford shelter from the sun, and a refuge from flies, gnats, and 

 other insects, which are particularly troublesome during the monsoon. 



At other times when they cannot find caves, or during the cool season, sloth- 

 bears spend the day amid long grass, bushes, or in holes in the sides of ravines. 

 They wander in search of food at night, and in the neighbourhood of human 

 habitations are rarely seen in the daytime, although in wild, uninhabited parts 

 they often remain out till eight or nine o'clock in the morning and are again on 

 the move an hour or so before sunset. In wet and cloudy weather they may be 

 abroad all day. Although like other Indian animals they avoid the noonday sun, 

 they are not so sensitive to heat as their black coat might lead us to expect, and 

 they have less hesitation than the tiger in exposing themselves to the sun's rays. 



