IN CAPTIVITY IN LOWER BENGAL. 101 



clamorous than the other. The noise they make is a sort of deep 

 guttural wail with a nasal twang. When hungry they eat up their usual 

 food, consisting of bread and milk or boiled rice and milk, with great 

 rapidity. Their mode of attack is very peculiar. They stand erect on 

 their hind legs, move backwards a step or two, and then plunge 

 forward and strike round with their forepaws. When fighting 

 between themselves, they also confront each other as above. They 

 sometimes hug each other playfully, uttering, all the time they are 

 thus engaged, a kind of monotonous howling cry often interrupted 

 by an angry growl. Their vision appears to become somewhat affected 

 by captivity. The Himalayan brown bears, especially adolescent 

 animals, run very swiftly at a gallop. One of a pair of these 

 beasts once managed to escape at night by climbing the sides of 

 its cage, which was at that time built of stout gurran poles ; squeezing 

 itself out through a small space between the roof and sides of the cage, 

 it found its way into one of the unoccupied rooms of the arsenal in 

 Fort William, and was captured the next day after much anxiety and 

 trouble. Although the space through which it had escaped was closed 

 in and all possible precautions taken to confine it, it escaped a second 

 time by biting through a portion of the fencing. It was, however, 

 discovered just outside the garden by one of the watchmen, whose 

 attention was called to that direction by the barking of pariah dogs. 

 The fugitive was soon circumvented and captured after an exciting chase 

 all over the garden. 



(107) THE GBIZZLY BEAU. 

 (UBSUS HOKRIBILIS—Orrf.) 



This species of bear attains to considerable size. The specimens 

 exhibited in the collection were, however, small animals, the larger of 

 the two, the male, not measuring more than 5 feet 9 inches. The front 

 claws are comparatively larger than the hinder ones, and curved like 

 those of the sloth bear. Fur coarse and abundant, longer on the neck 

 than in the rest of the body ; its colour varies from grey to blackish 

 brown; the limbs, especially the lower parts, are much darker than the 

 rest of the body : tail very small. In the specimens under observation 

 the tail was scarcely visible in the winter, when the coat was dense 

 and thick ; they looked very pale in summer, when the coating became 

 thin and ragged. 



Sab.— North America, chiefly the Rocky Mountains and the open 

 grassy plains and prairies adjacent. 



Length of life in captivity. 



The maximum period of life of this species has been only three 

 years and ten months. 



Treatment in health. 



Housing. — This may be the same as for the brown bear, though 

 modifications may always be necessary to suit special peculiarities. 



