OF THE CANID® AND URSIDA, 937 
This characteristic of the limbs is more marked in the Malayan 
and the Sloth Bear than in the Himalayan, which in this, as in 
other respects, comes nearer the group of bears typified by 
U. arctos. I think it probable that the nakedness of the carpal 
area of the underside of the fore foot in those three species as 
well as the inturning of the paws are adaptations to climbing, 
because naked roughish integument will give a better hold on 
bark than integument nonenedl with hairs, a Aad during the ascent 
or backward descent of a vertical tree-trunk—bears : always climb 
down rear end foremost—the upward turn of the fore paws gives 
the claws a securer grip on the bark, because their points are set 
at right angles to the axis of the trunk, without interfering with 
the clasping action of the limb. 
Noses of Bears. 
The rhinarium of Bears is always large and naked, and is 
circumscribed above and at the sides by the short hairs of the 
muzzle and upper lips. Usually the hair on the summit of 
the muzzle forms nearly a straight line, passing from the posterior 
notch of one nostril to that of the other; and beneath the 
rhinarium the hairs of the upper lip extend almost or quite to — 
the middle line, leaving at most a narrow strip of naked integu- 
ment below the rhinarium. I have not been able to examine 
sufficiently closely a large enough number of specimens to show 
the variation in width to which this strip of integument is liable 
in Ursus arctos, horribilis, americanus, Tremarctos thibetanus, 
ornatus, but in all these species, as in- Thalarctos maritimus, it 
is at most a few millimetres wide, narrower, that is to say, than 
the median area of the remem between the § inner edges of the 
nostrils. 
But in the Sloth Bear (Welursus) the rhinarium 1s very large. 
Dorsally it extends forwards so as to overhang the nostrils and 
backwards some distance behind the posterior end of the slit of 
the nostrils. It is also much wider beneath the slit laterally and 
there is a very wide median area of moist skin annexed to the 
rhinavium on the upper lip. ‘The only bear possessing a rhinarivin 
approaching that of d/elursus in relative size is Helarctos malay- 
Gaius, which, in this respect, 1s intermediate between 7'remarctos 
thibetanuws iad Melursus ursinus. In both these species the 
vreater size of the rhinarium and of the moist naked area below 
it, is associated with the mobility of the snout and upper lip, 
which is a marked feature in /Helarctos malayanus and reaches 
an extreme in Jelursus wrsinus. 
The facial vibrisse of Bears are reduced in number and length, 
as compared with those of most other Carnivores. A few buccal 
and supevciliary bristles are retained, but the genals and inter- 
ramals appear to be suppressed as a rule. The genals [ did not 
find in any of the dead specimens examined, but in the example 
