172 WILD ANIMALS. 



The Malayan bear {Frsus Malay anus) comes from Burmah, 

 Malayan Peninsula, and the Bornean Islands. It is a smaller 

 species of bear than any of the foregoing, and has a grotesque 

 appearance. Its claws are of great length. The tongue is very 

 flexible and has considerable power of extension, which enable it 

 to reach the honey in the depth of the wild bees' nests. These 

 bears exhibit great sagacity, and are very fond of delicacies of 

 all kinds. The animal now in the Gardens is a great favourite 

 with the visitors, owing to his funny tricks to draw attention 

 and solicit the buns with which they feed him, perhaps to too 

 great an extent. He either turns somersaults over and over on 

 the bars of his den, dances about or waddles on his short bandy 

 legs round and round in a small circle in a most ludicrous 

 manner, and apparently is a perfectly tame and harmless animal. 

 He is certainly the most amusing creature in the Gardens, with 

 the exception perhaps of one or two of the monkeys. 



The Himalayan bear (Ursus tibetanus) is an animal of moderate 

 size, called by some writers the Thibet bear, but it is rather rare 

 in that country, being more common in the mountainous districts 

 of India, on the Himalayas and hill-ranges of Assam. Jerdon de- 

 scribes this bear as being generally found in summer at a consider- 

 able elevation, 9000 to 12,000 feet or so, and often close to snow, but 

 in the winter it descends to 5000 feet, and sometimes even lower. 



It has a remarkably thick neck and a flattened head, so much 

 so that the muzzle and forehead form almost a straight line. The 

 ears are large, the body compact, and supported on thick and 

 clumsy limbs. Its general colour is black, but the lower lip is 

 white, and there is a large crescentric mark of the same colour on 

 the breast, which branches out on each side in front of the shoulder, 

 forming a letter Y. 



It lives chiefly on fruits, roots, grain, and other things of the 

 same nature. Bennett says in his " Tower Menagerie " that the 

 one exhibited there, which had been brought from Sumatra, could 

 never be prevailed on to touch flesh, either raw or cooked, and 

 bread and fruits were the substances on which he was constantly 

 fed. In disposition he was moderately tame and particularly fond 

 of play. 



