558 CARNIVORA 
moderately curved non-retractile claws. Palms and soles naked. 
Tail very short. Kars moderate, erect, rounded, hairy. Fur 
generally long, soft, and shaggy. 
The Bears are all animals of considerable bulk, and include 
among them the largest members of the order, Though the species 
are not numerous, they are widely spread over the carth’s surface 
(but absent from the Ethiopian and Australian regions, and only 
represented by one species in the Neotropical region), and differ 
much among themselves in their food and manner of life. They 
are. mostly omnivorous or vegetable feeders, and even the Polar 
HN 
AVN 
(nwt 
in 
¥( 
lta, 255.—Head of the Brown Bear (Ursus actos). From Sclater, Proc. Zool, Soe, 1867, p. S17. 
Bear, usually purely carnivorous or piscivorous, devours grass with 
avidity in summer. Tho various species may be arranged in the 
following groups :— 
Thalassaretine Group.—lH cad comparatively small, molar teeth 
small and narrow. Soles more covered with hair than in the others. 
This group is represented only by the well-known Polar or White 
Bear (U. maritimus) of the Arctic regions, which is one of the fow 
mammals which are completely white at all seasons of the year. 
The typical, or Ursine, group includes a number of species, of 
which the Common Brown Bear (U. aretos) is the best known 
example. This species is an exceedingly variable one, and has a 
very wide range in the Palwaretic region; the Syrian form described 
as U. syriacus, ws well as the Tairy-cared Bear (UV. piscator, Fig. 
255) of North-Hastern Asia, and the Snow-Bear (U/%. isabedlinus) of 
