CATALOGUE. 123 



is given by Sir T. S. Raffles in the thirteenth volume of the Trans. 

 Linn. Soc. p. 254. Here, after a few remarks on the exterior, the 

 manners are thus described : " When taken young, they become very 

 tame. One lived two years in my possession. He was brought up in 

 the nursery with the children ; and when admitted to my table, as was 

 frequently the case, gave a proof of his taste by refusing to eat any 

 fruit but mangosteens, or to drink any wine but champagne. The 

 only time I ever knew him out of humour was on an occasion when no 

 champagne was forthcoming. He was naturally of a playful and affec- 

 tionate disposition, and it was never found necessary to chain or chastise 

 him. It was usual for this bear, the cat, the dog, and a small blue 

 mountain-bird or Lory, of New Holland, to mess together, and to eat 

 out of the same dish. His favourite playfellow was the dog, whose 

 teazing and worrying was always borne and returned with the utmost 

 good- humour and playfulness. As he grew up, he became a very power- 

 ful animal ; and in his rambles in the garden, he would lay hold of the 

 largest plantains, the stems of which he could scarcely embrace, and 

 tear them up by the roots." 



The range of the Malayan Bear appears to be limited to within 

 a few degrees of the equator. He is attracted, in Sumatra, to the 

 villages of the natives by his fondness for the young protruding summits 

 of the cocoa-nut trees. He is well known to be fond of delicacies. In 

 his native forests his lengthened tongue fits him peculiarly for feeding 

 on honey, which is abundantly supplied by various indigenous species 

 of bees. (Zool. Journ. ii. p. 232.) 



This account is confirmed by Dr. Sal. Miiller, who states : " In his 

 native forests the Bear displays much zeal and ingenuity in discovering 

 the nests of bees, and in extracting their contents, by means of his teeth, 

 from the narrow orifices of the branches of the trees in which they are 

 concealed ; for nothing appears to be so attractive to his taste as honey." 

 Dr. Miiller also informs us that the Malayan Bear inhabits exclusively 

 the large forests which cover as well the plains as the mountain 

 declivities of Sumatra and Borneo : here he lives in hollow trees or 

 caverns, avoiding the neighbourhood of villages or human dwellings. 

 He remains concealed during the day : at night he visits the plantations, 

 ascends the fruit-trees, and, being very eager after sweets, he steals 

 into the sugar-plantations, in which he commits as much injury by 

 devouring as by treading down the cane. In his pursuit of small birds 

 and animals, he prefers those that live on a vegetable diet. It is only 

 in cases of the greatest want that this Bear has been known to attack 

 and devour man. 



