The food of this species in a state of nature is said to consist of fruits, honey, and the white ants, which are so destructive. It inhabits the mountainous parts of India, where its retreat is stated to be in some cavern. Major (now Colonel) Sykes noticed it in Dukhun (Deecan).
In captivity it appears to be mild, but melancholy. A pair were kept for some time in the garden of the Zoological Society. They lived very sociably, and often lay huddled together, uttering a kind of rattling but low whine, or purring, which was .continuous and monotonous, but not entirely unmusieal : indeed, by more than one who heard it, it was termed their song. The paw was generally at the mouth when they made this noise. A living specimen is still to be seen in the Zoological Gardens.
U. Malayanus, Raffles (11elarclos Malayanws, Horsfield), the Malayan Bear; the Bruang of the Malays, is jet-black, with the muzzlo of a yellowish tint, and has a semilunar white mark upon the breast. Dr. Horsfield observes, that the largest prepared specimen which he had examined measured 4 feet 6 inches along the back.
The Syrian Bear frequently preys on animals, but for the most part feeds on vegetables. The fields of Cicer aridinus (a kind of chick-pea), and other crops near the snowy region, are often laid waste by it.
The skin is sometimes fulvous brown, and, as has been stated, sometimes fulvous white, varied with fulvous spots. These changes are supposed to have been occasioned by the abrasion of the long hair, whereby the woolly fur beneath and that of the head become exposed. Two very fine specimens of this species, a male and female, are living in the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park.
U. labiatus (Melani's Łybius, Meyer), Labiated Bear or Sloth Bear. This uncouth animal, on its arrival in Europe about sixty years ago, was taken for a Sloth and obtained the name of Bradypus pentadactylus and Crainus, Five-Fingered Sloth, Sloth Bear, or Ursine Sloth. By the two last names it was formerly shown in menageries ; and Bewick gave an excellent portrait of it in his 'Quadrupeds,' as "an animal which has hitherto escaped the attention of naturalists." Meyer called it a Mdursus ; and Fischer a Chondrorhynchus. It is the Brad ;Irma ursinus of Shaw (though it bears no relation to the true sloths either in structure or habits); the Ursua labiatus of De Blainville ; and the Ursus longirostris of Tiedernann ; the Ours Paresseux and Ours Jongleur of the French. The short limbs, the
depressed air of the head, surmounted by the hillock of a back, and The sagacity of the Malayan Bear is said to be great, and its liking for delicacies extreme. The honey of the indigenous bees of its native forests is supposed to be a favourite food; and certainly the extreme length of the tongue is well adapted for feeding on it. Vegetables form the chief diet of this bear, and it is said to be attracted to the vicinity of man by its fondness for the young shoots of the cocoa-nut trees, to which it is very injurious ; indeed Sir Stamford Raffles found those of the deserted villages in the Passumah digriet of Sumatra destroyed by it. It has not unfrequently been taken and domesticated.
In confinement it is mild and sagacious. Sir Stamford Raffles thus describes the manners of one which appears to have been deservedly a great favourite :— " When taken young," he says, "they become very tame. One lived for two years in my possession. He was brought up in the nursery with the children ; and, when admitted to my table, as was frequently the case, gave a proof of his taste by refusing to eat any fruit but mangosteens, or to drink any wine but champagne. The only time I ever knew him to be out of humour was on an occasion when no champagne was forthcoming. It was naturally of an affectionate disposition, and it was never found necessary to chain or chastise him. It was usual for this bear, the eat, the dog, and a small blue mountain bird or lory of New Holland, to mess together, and eat out of the same dish. His favourite play-fellow was the dog, whose teasing and worrying was always borne and returned with the utmost good humour and playfulness. As he grew up he became a very powerful animal, and in his rambles in the garden he would lay hold of the largest plantains, the stems of which he could scarcely embrace, nd tear them up by the roots." There are several specimens in the gardens of the Zoological Society Itegent'a Park.