BEARS. 



altogether aquatic in their habits, and provided with limbs spe- 

 ecially formed for swimming, have received the name of Am- 

 phibious Carnivora. 



PLANTIGRADE CARXIVORA. 



The Bears (Ursus} have three large blunt molar teeth in each jaw, in 

 front of which is a small lacerator, preceded by a variable number of very 

 small false molars ; they consequently live almost entirely upon vegetable 

 food, and seldom eat flesh by choice. They lay the whole sole of the foot 



FIG. 458. BEAT;. 



upon the ground in walking, which gives them a heavy, shuffling gait, but 

 admits of the body being reared up and sustained in an erect attitude : in 

 this posture the fore paws are frequently used in defence, either to strike or 

 to hug an assailant to death. The feet are furnished with five toes, armed 

 with strong curved and blunt nails. They are generally large animals, with 

 thickset bodies, clumsy limbs, and a very short tail ; they dig for themselves 

 dens, or construct shelters, in which they pass the winter in a state of pro- 

 found sleep, without taking food, and it is in these retreats that the female 

 rears her cubs, usually two in number. 



The White Bear (Ursus maritimus] is an animal of very peculiar habits. I/- 

 lives in the frozen regions of the northern hemisphere, where it feeds on fishes, seals, 

 and young whales ; nevertheless, even this animal is not essentially carnivorous, and 

 can be brought to live on bread alone. He swims and dives with astonishing facility. 

 White bears are sometimes met -with in numerous societies, in which they differ from 

 other bears, which are always solitary : like the rest of the genus, however, they re- 

 quire a retreat for the winter : they content themselves with some cleft in the rocks, or 

 even in a mass of ice, and there, without preparing any bed, allow themselves to be 



