The Tower Menagerie : $b comprising the natural history of the animals contained in that establishment; with anecdotes of their characters and history.Bennett, Edward Turner
History
The Tower Menagerie : $b comprising the natural history of the animals contained in that establishment; with anecdotes of their characters and history.
M. Duvaucel enumerates three species of bears inhabiting India and the
neighbouring islands. The first of these is the Ursus labiatus, which was
strangely mistaken on its first arrival in Europe, nearly forty years
ago, for a Sloth, and received from the naturalists of that day the name
of Bradypus pentadactylus, or ursinus, the Five-fingered, or Ursine,
Sloth; an appellation which has been productive of no little confusion
in nomenclature, and is still frequently employed in menageries and
exhibitions to distinguish the same animal, and sometimes even nearly
related species. With the true Sloths it has nothing in common; and the
only circumstance which can at all account for the blunder, consists
in the accidental deficiency of the incisor teeth in the animal first
examined; a deficiency, which, according to the strict principles of
the artificial system then adopted, was alone sufficient to convert a
Bear into a Sloth. The second is the Ursus Malayanus, the Malay Bear,
admirably illustrated, both with regard to character and habits, by
the late lamented Sir Stamford Raffles in the thirteenth volume of the
Linnean Transactions. Another species, intimately connected with this,
and unknown to M. Duvaucel, will form the subject of the following
article. In the present we must confine ourselves to his third form, the
Thibet Bear, which, according to his observations, made on the living
animal, is distinguished by the following characteristics.
In size it is intermediate between the two other species which he
describes. Its most remarkable distinction is derived from the thickness
of its neck and the flatness of its head, its forehead forming almost
a straight line with its muzzle. The latter is moderately thick and
somewhat lengthened; and the ears are very large. The body is compact,
and the limbs heavy; a conformation from which we might be led to infer
great muscular strength, together with a capacity for climbing trees and
performing other feats of a similar description, were it not for the
comparative weakness of the claws, which are scarcely more than half as
long as those of the other Indian bears. Like the latter, its colour
is invariably of a uniform glossy jet-black, except on the lower lip,
which is white; as is also a patch occupying the front of the neck, and
in shape like a Y, the two upper limbs of which pass in front of the
shoulders, while the lower one occupies the middle line of the chest.
The upper part of the muzzle is black, with a slight reddish tint on
the sides; and the edges of the lips flesh-coloured. The hair, which is
smooth on the muzzle, becomes shaggy on the back part of the head, from
the base of the ears downwards, and adds considerably to the apparent
volume of that part, but not quite to the same extent as in the Ursus
labiatus, in old individuals of which it almost touches the ground. It
was found by Dr. Wallich in the mountains of Nepaul, and by M. Duvaucel
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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