NATUEAL HISTOEY AND DISTEIBUTION OF BEAES. 
257 
as those of Europe in general and G-reat Britain in particular ; 
at the same time, it must he observed that although caverns are 
common in North America, no traces have yet turned up of the 
grizzly bear, indicating either that its progenitors were not 
cavern-haunting, as in Europe, or else that the animal is a far 
more modern occupant of the Continent. The same may be said 
of the American black bear, which is restricted to the temperate 
latitudes ; and although disappearing with the forests, was, 
within the historical period, very plentiful from Mexico north- 
wards to the confines of the Arctic Circle. This species, like the 
brown and grizzly bears, presents the same variability with re- 
ference to colouring and texture of the fur ; the Polar bear 
( U. maritimus) being the only one of the family that preserves 
regularity in these respects. Its food is also more uniform, 
and being restricted to the Arctic regions there are not the same 
influences affecting it as with the preceding, spread over vast 
continents which differ much in climate, aspect, and natural 
productions. Although many bears vary very much in outward 
appearance and osteological characters, we find, as in equine 
and feline species, a general disposition to particular markings 
on certain parts of the body. For example, the spinal and 
shoulder stripes so distinctly defined in the zebra, repeated 
in the ass, and now and then appearing in the horse, are repre- 
sented by the light-coloured shoulder and brisket markings in 
the bear tribe so well seen in the black and sun bears, whilst in 
the brown and grizzly the collar is faint and scarcely discernible, 
unless when the winter is being replaced by the summer fur. 
The well-known long-nosed bear (U. labiatus) of Hin- 
dostan, so distinct in osteological characters from any other 
member of the genus, retains also the white mark on the front 
of the chest. Whatever may have been the distribution of 
this species in pre-historic epochs, it is now restricted to the 
torrid regions of the above country. Ee verting to the North 
American black bear, we find the white spot is only occasionally 
present on its brisket ; and better defined on the black or 
spectacled bear of the Cordilleras (U. ornatus), a species dis- 
tinct in several respects from the last, and more closely allied 
to the black bear of Asia, the nearest habitat of which is in 
the East Indian Islands, where it is known as the bruang. 
From thence it extends northwards to Eastern Siberia, over 45 
degrees of latitude, and throughout countries differing very 
much in physical and climatal conditions ; moreover, excepting 
that its fur is longer and thicker in the temperate than torrid 
regions, there is little difference either in the coloration of 
the pile or in osteological characters. However, like varieties 
of the brown bear met with in regions wide apart, it has 
received various names, which are now classed under the one 
VOL. xm. — no. lii. s 
