n 



MR. P. L. SCLATER ON A NEW URSUS. 



[Feb. 13, 



the brown chiu by an ill-defined brown line. The shape of the 

 muzzle was also much sharper and more prolonged than in V . ame- 

 ricanus, rendering the distance between the eye and tlie point of the 

 nose comparatively greater, as was shown by sketches of the heads 

 of these two animals. 



mr(}iifiii 





a. Ursus nasutus, h. Ursus americanus. 



The specimen had been purchased of a dealer at Liverpool, and 

 was stated to have been brought from the West Indies. It was pro- 

 bably from some part of the South- American Continent. The only 

 generally recognized South-American Bear was the Spectacled Bear 

 (U. ornatus), figured in Geoffroy St.-IIilaire and F. Cuvier's 'Hist. 

 Nat.' (ii. t. 218), which was known by the brown spectacle-like 

 markings on the forehead, and had a short broad nose. Tschudi 

 had described a second species, from Peru *, which, however, did not 

 seem at all to resemble the present animal. But it was very pos- 

 sible that the Venezuelan Bear, described by Sir R. Ker Porter, in 

 a communication made to this Society on the 22nd of October, IS^S-f, 

 might refer to it, as the description and presumed locality alike agreed 

 with it. 



* Ursus fmgilegus, Tsch. F. P. Mamm. p. 90, characterized as " supra nigro- 

 fuscus coneolor, subtus brunneus." Dr. Gray, in his lately published revision of 

 the UrsidcB (P. Z. S. 1864), seems to have altogether overlooked this species. — 

 P L. S. 



t SeeP. Z. S. 1833, p. 114. 



