The Mammals of the Sub-Himalayas and Tibet. 105 



emphatic critic, in flat contradiction of what he erroneously alleges 

 Dr. J. to say, affirms 1st, that "the black Bhalu" is not Ursus 

 Tibetanus, which is the Eeech: 2nd, that Tibetanus is not found 

 above Rajpur, nor at any places so low as from 2,500 to 3,500 feet 

 above the sea: and, 3rd, that there are no less than three black 

 bears between the plains and the snows. 



Now, mark, how the case stands on these three points ! Upon the 

 first point the fact is that the words Bhalu and Beech are Hindu 

 generic names for all bears whatever, and Tibetanus being just as 

 black as Labiatus : unquestionably the former is just as much the 

 black bear as the latter : your critic's appropriation of the words 

 Bhalu and Reech so dogmatically to Labiatus and Tibetanus, being- 

 nothing more or less than a blunder ! and the contradiction hurled 

 at Dr. J. founded thereon, as futile as it is rude. In the next place, 

 the Tibetan bear certainly is found constantly and habitually at 

 elevations so low as 3,000 feet, and frequently at 2,000, above the 

 sea, and consequently 1,000 above the plains — with reference to 

 which basis, and not to the sea level, Dr. Jameson may have 

 spoken, and spoken without violation of facts or of usage. In the 

 third place, the assertion of your critic that there are three species of 

 black bear between the plains and the snows, is perfectly gratuitous, 

 and improperly made the ground of a point blank contradiction. We 

 all know that according to native reports given to Mr. Hodgson, 

 fifteen years ago, there are two sorts of the black bear of the central 

 region which are called Bhumia and Kathia, or ground and tree bears, 

 whereof the latter is alleged by the mountaineers to be the smaller 

 and more scansorial. But the distinction rests on no solid founda- 

 tion : the real state of the case being that the Tibetan bear is in youth 

 very active and a great climber,* as well as gregarious or social to the 

 extent of living a good while with his fellow cubs of the same litter, 

 but that advancing years add so much to his weight from proneness 

 to obesity and to his unsociableness from sexual impulses, that he can 

 climb no longer nor endure the presence of males, and therefore 



* I have seen the young bears of this species climb trees as agilely as 

 monkeys, in order to get at the locusts, a flight of which had just appeared, 

 and which they handled very oddly, and ate up as fast as could be ! 



P 



