94 MAMMALIA. 
short tail: the cartilage of the nose is clongated and’ movable. 
They excavate dens or construct huts, in which they pass the winter 
in a state of somnolency more or less profound, and without food. 
It is in these retreats that the female brings forth. 
The species are not easily distinguished by apparent characters. 
We have the a 
U. arctos, L., Buff. VIII, XXXi. (The Brown Bear of Eu- 
rope.) Forehead convex; fur brown, more or less woolly when 
young, and growing smoother with age. Some of them are 
greyish, others almost yellow, and a third kind is brown, with 
shades bordering on silver. The relative height of their legs is 
equally variable, and all without any fixed relation to age or 
sex. They have most commonly, when young, a whitish col- 
lar, which, in some varieties, remains for a longer or shorter 
period, and even for life.. This animal inhabits the lofty moun- 
tains, and great forests of Europe, and of a great part of Asia; the 
coupling season is in June, and the young are produced in Janua- 
ry. It sometimes lodges very high up in trees; when young its 
flesh is esteemed a delicacy—the feet are considered good at all 
ages. 
It is thought that the Black. Bear of Europe is a distinct spe- 
cies: those which have been described as such had a flat fore- 
head, and the fur woolly and blackish; their origin, however, 
does not appear to us to be very authentic.(1) 
U. americanus, Gm.; Fr. Cuv. Mammif.; Schreb. pl. 141, B. 
(The North American Black Bear.) A very distinct species, 
with.a flat forehead, smooth and black fur, and fawn-coloured 
muzzle. We have always found the small teeth behind the 
canini more numerous in this Bear than in the European spe- 
cies. Individuals have been seen that were entirely fawn-co- 
loured. Its usual food is wild fruits; it devastates the fields, 
(1) Weare not yet satisfied that the Grisly Bear of North America differs speci- 
fically from the Brown Bear of Europe. 
P.S. Since the above note was written, General La Fayette has presented a 
Grisly Bear to the Menagerie du Jardin duRoi. In form and hair, some shades of 
colouring excepted, it closely resembles the Brown Bear; its nails, however, are 
much longer and more trenchant. It appears to be a distinct species. 
M. Horsfield, Lin. Trans., XV, 332, describes a Bear from Nepaul, of a light 
bay colour, whose nails are less trenchant than those of the other Bears of India, 
and which appears to him a distinct species. . 
I have neglected stating in the text that we have recovered. many fossil bones of 
lost species. of Bears, the most remarkable of which are the UW. spelaus, Blumenb., 
with a rounded forehead, and ofa very large size; and the J. eat in Cuv. See 
thefourth vol. of my “ Ossemens Fossiles.”, 4 
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