202 Remarks on Ursus labiatus. 



The ears of the bear are rounded, and of proportional 

 size. The sense of hearing is good. The scent is its 

 keenest sense ; and the eyesight, judging by the smallness 

 of the member, and the animal's general action, must be 

 defective, or at least very short. The eye is small and round, 

 and when the animal is excited, appears almost starting from 

 the socket. 



The power of suction in the bear, as well of propelling 

 wind from its mouth, is very great. It is by this means 

 it is enabled to procure its common food of white ants 

 and larvae with ease. On arriving at an ant-hill the bear 

 scrapes away with his fore feet till he reaches the large 

 combs at the bottom of the galleries. He then with violent 

 puffs dissipates the dust and crumbled particles of the nest, 

 and sucks out the inhabitants of the comb by such forcible 

 inhalations as to be heard at two hundred yards distance, 

 or more. Larvae, especially the large ones of the Atembeus 

 Sacer, are in this way sucked out from great depths under 

 the soil. Where bears abound, their vicinity may be readily 

 known by numbers of these uprooted ants' nests and excava- 

 tions, in which the marks of their claws are plainly visible. 



The bear likewise eats fruits of various kinds, coming out 

 at night in great numbers under such trees as have begun to 

 drop their ripened produce — the bur, peepul, jamoon, bel, 

 and mowhooa; but mangoes they do not appear to relish. 

 When thus congregated they now and then attack each other, 

 and their roarings disturb the neighbouring villagers. They 

 likewise rob birds' nests and devour the eggs. Those that 

 I have reared from cubs eat flesh, whether cooked or raw, 

 fowls, birds, feathers, legs and all ; also reptiles and in- 

 sects ; their chief food was rice and sour milk, but vegetables 

 or fruit of all kinds they eschewed. This was of course 

 only the effect of education. 



In concluding these remarks on the conformation of the 

 bear, it may be observed that the Bhaloo of India has not 

 the property of extending the tongue mentioned by natu- 



