JOURNAL 



OF TIIE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL 



Part II.— PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 



No. IV.— 1877, 



XIV. — Note on two Species of Asiatic Bears, tlie '■^ ILamV of Salucliistdn 

 and Ursus pruinosus, BIyth, of Tilet, and on an apparently undescrihed 

 Fox from Balucliistdn. — By W. T. Blanfoed, F. R. S,, &c. 



(Received and Eead Novr. 7th, 1877.) 



For some years past I have endeavoured to obtain a specimen o£ the 

 small bear, which is known to inhabit Baluchistan and the hilly regions of 

 Western Sind. This bear is well known to residents in Sind by its Baluch 

 name of " Mamh" or " Mum," and individual animals have on rare occasions 

 been found straying on to the alluvial flats of the Indus valley. I first 

 heard of a dark-coloured bear in Western Baluchistan, when I accom- 

 panied Major St. John on the Perso- Baluch boundary Survey in the 

 year 1872, but neither at that time, nor in the course of several months 

 spent in Sind in 1875-76-77, could I procure a skin for examination. I 

 have seen fresh tracks of the animal in the Khirthar range in Western 

 Sind, and not only I myself, but several friends have endeavoured to obtain 

 a specimen. Not long since a discussion took place in the columns of the 

 * Pioneer' newspaper as to this animal, and it was suggested that it might 

 be a baboon, and hinted that it must be a myth. The latter hypothesis 

 appeared supported by the extraordinary tales told of the animal by the 

 inhabitants of the country, such as their belief that, except in the presence 

 of man, it always walks on its hind legs, and a still more remarkable tale, 

 that all " Mamhs" are females, that each seizes a man and forces him to 

 cohabit with her, after laming him to prevent his escaping, the young be- 

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