MAMMALIA. 



[Chap. I. 



hairs, its feet are furnished with prehensile hooks that 

 almost convert them into hands ; and being obliged to 

 conform to the sudden flights of its patron, and ac- 

 commodate itself to inverted positions, all attitudes are 

 rendered alike to it by the arrangement of its limbs, 

 which enables it, after every possible gyration, to find 

 itself always on its feet. 



III. Caenivoka. — Bears. — Of the carnivora, the one 

 most dreaded by the natives of Ceylon, and the only one 

 of the larger animals that makes the depths of the forest 

 its habitual retreat, is the bear l , attracted chiefly by 

 the honey which is found in the hollow trees and 

 clefts of the rocks. Occasionally spots of fresh earth 

 are observed which have been turned up by the bears 

 in search of some favourite root. They feed also on 

 the termites and ants. A friend of mine traversing the 

 forest, near Jaffna, at early dawn, had his attention at- 

 tracted by the growling of a bear, that was seated 

 upon a lofty branch, thrusting portions of a red-ants' 

 nest into his mouth with one paw, whilst with the other 

 he endeavoured to clear his eyebrows and lips of the 

 angry inmates, which bit and tortured him in their rage. 

 The Ceylon bear is found in the low and dry districts 

 of the northern and south-eastern coast, and is seldom 

 met with on the mountains or the moist and damp 

 plains of the west. It is furnished with a bushy tuft of 

 hair on the back, between the shoulders, by which the 

 young are accustomed to cling till sufficiently strong to 

 provide for their own safety. During a severe drought 

 that prevailed in the northern province in 1850, the 

 district of Caretchy was so infested by bears that the 



1 Prochilus labiatus, Blainville, 



