4 W. T. Blanford —On the Mamh or Baluchistan Bear. [Jan 
one faith with the first exponent of the other, which took over so many 
traditions that it retained in common with the parent creed, is a point of 
marked importance. Eclipsed for a time by the energy of the reformers, 
whose missionaries carried the Buddhist doctrines over so large a section 
of the globe, non-proselytizing Jainism has survived in its simplicity—as 
the natural outcome of the ideas and aspirations of a primitive race—still 
undisturbed in the land of their common birth ; while Buddhism, with its 
fantastic elaborations, retains scant honour, and no place within the limits 
of its nidus in India proper. (Athenwum.) 
Mr. W. T. Blanfobd exhibited the skin and skull of a bear from the 
neighbourhood of Gwadar, and read the following— 
Note on the ‘ Mamh’ or Baluchistan Bear, Ursus gedrosianus. 
In November 1877, I exhibited to the Society a skin of the bear in¬ 
habiting Baluchistan.* In the belief that this skin, which was of a brown 
colour, indicated the existence of an animal previously undescribed, I pro¬ 
posed to call the species Ursus gedrosianus. From various sources, how¬ 
ever, both before and after the publication of the paper, I had heard that a 
black bear occurs in Baluchistan, and it remained to be seen whether there 
were two species, or whether the colour was variable. Moreover as ho skull 
had been examined, the affinities of the animal remained doubtful. 
I am indebted to my friend Major Mockler, who sent me the first speci¬ 
men, for enabling me to clear up this difficulty. He has succeeded in pro¬ 
curing from the neighbourhood of Gwadar a second skin, in better condition 
than the first, and with the skull. The fur of the skin now sent, although 
far from being as black as in Himalayan specimens of Ursus torquatus, 
is very much darker than in the example previously received; the hairs 
are rather coarse, but there is no marked distinction from those of the 
Himalayan black bear. The Baluchistan skull is scarcely distinguishable from 
one in the Indian Museum, belonging to a female U. torquatus, recently 
living in the Zoological Gardens at Alipore.f The following are the dimen¬ 
sions of the skull from Gwadar. 
inches millem. 
Length from the lower margin of th oforamen magnum 
to end of premaxillaries, . 9'7 246 
Ditto from occiput to do. 10'45 265 
Breadth across zygomatic arches,. 6'9 175 
Least breadth of cranium between orbits, . 2'9 73 
* P. A. S. B., 1877, p. 204; J. A. S. B., XLYI, Pt. 2, p. 317. 
t I am indebted to Dr. Anderson for calling my attention to tbis specimen. 
