1907.] MR. H. SCHERREN ON HYBRID BEARS. 435 



in December 1897 she threw the three-quarter blood cub to her 

 own sire, the original Polar Bear, which it may be raentioned was 

 obtained by von Heuglin's expedition. 



In his last Guide (undated) to his little Garden, Herr JSTill thus 

 described the animals : — 



" Wahrend die Bastardmutter gelblichbraun mit helleren 

 Abzeichen am Kopf und dunkleren auf dem Riicken und an den 

 Fiissen gefarbt ist, in den Korperformen aber noch zwischen Eis- 

 und Braunbiir steht, hat das dreiviertelbliitige junge Tier voll- 

 standig die Gestalt und die Farbe des Eisbiiren angenommen 

 und ist nur noch durch eine ganz hellbraune Schattierung langs 

 des Rllckens von einem solchen zu unterscheiden." 



Since then the young has grown darker, but were it possible to 

 put her to a Polar Bear her cubs would jDrobably be indistin- 

 guishable from those of the true Ursus marithmis. When I 

 visited the pretty Garden at Halle-an-der-Saale last summer, the 

 Director, Dr. Gustav Brandes, drew my attention to a cage con- 

 taining a male Polar Bear and a female Bi'own Bear, and remarked 

 that he had reason to believe they had produced young, which 

 had been eaten by the dam. Early in February of this year he 

 kindly informed me that cubs had been born, and the mother was 

 caring for them. The animals were put together in 1902 ; 

 copulation was observed in the summer of 1904, and at the close 

 of the year the female withdrew into the inner compartment, 

 remaining there for some days, but it was impossible to be certain 

 that a birth had taken place, though the condition of the mammae 

 rendei'ed that probable. Paii'ing again took place in the summer 

 of 1905, and there was the same uncertainty as to results. 

 Dr. Brandes, however, assumes that in both cases cubs v>^ere born 

 and eaten by the dam, whose instinct of fostering her young had 

 not developed. In July 1906 pairing was observed, and on 

 January 23, 1907, three white cubs were born. Lest I should 

 unintentionally misrepresent Dr. Brandes' view I quote a passage 

 from his letter textually : — " Mich freut es, dass ich wieder 

 einma] meine Ansicht, dass sich das Brutpflegeinstinkt erst 

 entwickeln muss, mal wieder glanzend bestatigt hat. Man kann 

 sich keine bessere Mutter denken, und daher hat sie doch 

 zweimal die Jungen gefressen." By the end of February the dark 

 dorsal stripe was present. These cubs will be kept under close 

 observation, and photographed from time to time, in order to 

 illustrate the colour-changes in the coat. For more than a year 

 Dr. Brandes has kept a Korean female Black Bear {Ursiis tor- 

 quatics) with a pair of Sloth Bears {Melursus iirsinus), and they 

 have lived peaceably together, though no young have been 

 produced. 



