This curious and ungainly-looking beast is another of the Indian Bears, being found “throughout India and Ceylon, from Cape Comorin to the Ganges.” It is distinguished by its extremely awkward shape, its long shaggy hair, its prolonged and very flexible snout and lower lip, all of which peculiarities combine to give it a remarkable and anything but prepossessing appearance. The fur is mostly black, the muzzle and the tips of the feet being of a dirty white or yellowish colour, and the breast ornamented with a V-shaped or crescentic mark. It attains a length of between five and six feet. The Sloth Bear feeds on Ants, honey, fruit, &c. “The power of suction in the Bear, as well as of propelling wind from its mouth, is very great. It is by this means enabled to procure its common food of white Ants and larvæ with ease. On arriving at an Ant-hill, the Bear scrapes away with the fore feet until he reaches the large combs at the bottom of the galleries. He then, with violent puffs, dissipates the dust and crumbled particles of the nest, and sucks out the inhabitants of the comb by such forcible inhalations as to be heard at two hundred yards’ distance or more. Large larvæ are in this way sucked out from great depths under the soil. When Bears abound their vicinity may be readily known by numbers of these uprooted Ants’ nests and excavations, in which the marks of their claws are plainly visible. They occasionally rob birds’ nests, and devour the eggs.”[148] The capture of Ants is, however, by no means always devoid of inconvenient consequences for the ursine ravisher. The insects are as brave and ferocious as they are industrious, and their strong sharp mandibles are capable of making a considerable impression upon the snout, lips, and eyelids of their huge enemy. [Illustration: SLOTH BEAR.]