UBSUS laABELLiurs. 69 



lower jaw. Scissor-tooth nearly resembling the tubercnlate. Soles of the 

 feet usually devoid of hair; ears small; snout lengthened; tail usually 

 very short. 



Bears are mostly large, heavy animals, strictly plantigrade in their walk, 

 and their body covered with long and shaggy hair. Their claws are 

 adapted for digging, being long and stout, and they are mostly expert 

 climbers. Many live almost entirely on fruits and roots, and other vege- 

 table diet; others much on insects, larvje, honey, &c., a few are more 

 carnivorous in their habits. They conceal themselves in the day-time 

 in caves, holes of trees, and thickets. 



Gen. Uesus, Linnseus. 



Teeth as in the characters of the family. The false molars small, often 

 deciduous ; the penultimate lower tubercnlate tooth very large ; scissor- 

 tooth with a fiat tuberculated crown ; snout produced, the cartilage mobile, 

 truncated in front ; ears small, erect, rounded ; tail very short ; mammas 

 six, four ventral and two pectoral ; feet with very strong claws. 



Bears are found in both continents. Their cylindrical bones are nearer 

 those of man than those of most animals ; the femur, especially, closely 

 approximates the same bone in the human skeleton ; and hence the faculty 

 possessed by bears of standing erect, and of dancing. The sole of the foot, 

 as is well known to sportsmen, leaves a mark not unlike that of the human 

 foot. There are three species in our province, two of which are Himalayan. 



Bear^ have been subdivided of late into several sub-genera. 



89. Ursus isabellinus. 



HoBSFiBLD. — Blyth, Cat. 224. — U. syriacus, Hbmpeich t Barf ka 

 rich, or Bhalu, H. — Harput, in Kashmir. — Drin-mor, in Ladak. Snow 

 bear — Brown bear — Eed, yellow, gray, and silver Bear, of sportsmen. 



The Brown Beah. 



Descr. — Of large size, general color isabeUine or yellowish-brown. In 

 winter and spring the fur is long and shaggy, in some inclining to silvery- 

 gray, in others to reddish-brown ; the hair is thinner and darker in summer 

 as the season advances ; and in autumn, the under fur has mostly dis- 

 appeared, and a white collar on the chest is then very apparent. The cubs 

 show this collar distinctly. The females are said to be somewhat lighter in 

 color than males. 



