1906.] ON THE MALAY BEAR IN TIBET. 997 



5. On the Occurrence o£ the Bruang in the Tibetan 

 Province. Bv R. Lydekker. 



[Received December 4, 1906.] 

 (Text-figure 142.) 



That the eastern end of the Tibetan area, that is to say the 

 Moupin district of Tibet proper and the western portions of the 

 Chinese provinces of Kansu and Sze-chuan, contain, in addition 

 to their own peculiar mammalian types, a large element of the 

 Indo-Malay fauna, is becoming more and more evident. As 

 examples, may be cited the Monkeys Macacus arctoides tihetanus 

 and M. vesliitos, the Sze-chuan Sambar, Cervus unicolor dejeani, 

 and several Gorals and iSei'Ows. I have now to add to the list a 

 representative of the Bruang, or Malay Bear {Ursus inalayanus) ; 

 a type hitherto not known to range northwards of the Garo Hills, 

 so far at least as I am aware. 



At the time when the British Museum acquired from Rowland 

 Ward Ltd. the Serow described by myself in the Society's ' Pro- 

 ceedings ' for 1905* and an example of the Tibetan Takin, that 

 firm had in its possession the skull of a Bear reputed to come 

 from the same district (viz., either Eastern Tibet or the north- 

 western ]3rovinces of China). This skull was that of a Bruang, 

 but since I had some doubt whether it was really from the 

 Tibetan area, I gave it no further consideration. 



I have since learnt that the skin of the same animal came with 

 the skull ; and that the entire specimen was mounted and sold to 

 the Bergen Museum as Ursus torquatus. The skin, I am informed, 

 had much longer black hair than the ordinary Malay Bear, with 

 the usual white gorget on the throat. 



Quite recently the same well-known firm has received another 

 bear-skull of similar type from the Tibetan area, which came with 

 a skin of Fells scripta, and has been presented by Mr. Ward to 

 the British Museum. As to its being Tibetan (in a wide sense) 

 there can, I think, be no question. This skull, of which the lateral 

 and palatal aspects are shown in text-fig. 142 (p. 998), belonged 

 to a fully adult Bear of the Ursus mcdayanus type, as is perfectly 

 evident from its great width and relative shortness. Its ex- 

 treme basal length is 8*75, and its maximum width 8-5 inches ; 

 these dimensions comparing with 8*5 and 8"3 inches in a very 

 old and large skull of the typical U. malayamis measured by 

 Dr. W. T. Blanford t. So far as I can see, there are no characters 

 by which this skull (in a limited series of specimens) can be 

 distinguished from that of the typical U. mcdayanus ; and if this 

 were the only evidence available, there might be some hesitation in 

 giving a separate name to the Tibetan animal. The statement as 

 to the much greater length of the hair of the Bergen specimen, 



* Vol. ii. pp. 329 et seq^. 



t ' Fauna of Brit. India— Mamm.' p. 199. 



