Brown and Black Bears of the Himalayan Mountains. 429 



River. The branches, with immature fruit, gathered during 

 the Burdekin expedition, accord fully with others from Moreton 

 Bay, Rockhampton, and the Hastings River. It remains as 

 yet unascertained whether more than one Araucaria belongs to 

 the East Australian flora. Mr. Fitzalan offers on this pine the 

 following notes : Very abundant from Percy's Island upwards. 

 On Percy's Island it differs but little from the Moreton Bay 

 pine, except in the invariable regularity of its branches — these 

 being* in regular tiers, opposite. The Moreton Bay pine is 

 seldom so. As we go further north, this regularity increases, 

 and the foliage becomes more glaucous, until, at Port Molle 

 and on Whitsunday Island, the tree assumes the habit of the 

 New Caledonian species, the tree being conical, the tiers of 

 branches perfectly regular, and having a slight droop at their 

 tips. We cut a spar of it on Magnetical Island, to make a 

 top-mast, and the wood was hard and close grained, paler than 

 that of the Moreton Bay pine, and would not swim. It pro- 

 duces a white resin abundantly." 



HABITS AND HAUNTS OF THE BROWN AND BLACK 

 BEARS OF THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 



BY A. LEITH ADAMS, A.M., M.B., F.G.S. 



The European brown bear (Ursus arctos), although at one 

 time common in many parts of Europe, is now restricted to a 

 few secluded valleys in the Alps, Pyrenees, and mountains of 

 Norway and Lapland. The dark-coloured race, long considered 

 a distinct species, under the name of the European black bear, 

 together with the barren-ground bear of North America, are 

 now included among the varieties of Ursus arctos. The distri- 

 bution of the brown bear is more extensive than any of the 

 family. In Asia it inhabits Siberia and the Altai as far west- 

 ward as Japan ; when the Altai is crossed, and the great 

 Himalayan chain examined, there will be found another brown 

 bear, which has been named the Isabella bear, from the pre- 

 vailing light fulvous or Isabella colour of the fur. There is a 

 condition, common to all the above, and more or less apparent 

 at every stage of the animal's growth, which is a light or white 

 coloured collar; this is very distinct in the young or unborn 

 cub, and in particular during the shedding of the long winter 

 coat in midsummer; consequently it was from a specimen pro- 

 cured at that season that Cuvier desci*ibed his " Collared 

 bear." It would seem, moreover, that the fur on the front of 

 the chest is lighter than on other parts of the body in almost 



