Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon Part 25

Beng.,' 1878, page 150). Before I refer to his notes I may state that this animal is a sort of link between the _Soricidae_ and the _Erinaceidae_, and De Blainville proposed for it the generic name of _Echinosorex_, but the one generally adopted is _Gymnura_, which was the specific name given to it by its discoverer, Sir Stamford Raffles, who described it as a _Viverra_ (_V. gymnura_); however, Horsfield and Vigors and Lesson, the two former in England and the latter in France, saw that it was not a civet, and, taking the naked tail as a peculiarity, they called the genus _Gymnura_, and the specimen _Rafflesii_. There is not much on record regarding the anatomy of the animal, and in what respects it internally resembles the hedgehogs. Outwardly it has the general soricine form, though much larger than the largest shrew. The long tail too is against its resemblance to the hedgehogs, which rests princ.i.p.ally on its spiny pelage.

The teeth in some degree resemble _Erinaceus_, the molars and premolars especially, but the number in all is greater, there being forty-four, or eight more. It would be interesting to know whether the zygomatic arch is perfect and the tibia and fibula united, as in the hedgehogs, or wanting and distinct as in the shrews. I have given a slight sketch in outline of the animal.

NO. 162. GYMNURA RAFFLESII.

_The Bulau_.

HABITAT.--Tena.s.serim (Sumatra, Borneo); Malacca.

[Figure: _Gymnura Rafflesii_.]

DESCRIPTION.--Long tapering head, with elongated muzzle, short legs, shrew-like body, with a long, round, tapering and scaly rat-like tail, naked, with the exception of a few stiff hairs here and there among the scales. In each jaw on each side three incisors, one canine (those in the upper jaw double-fanged) and seven premolars and molars; feet five-toed, plantigrade, armed with strong claws. Fur of two kinds, fine and soft, with longer and more spiny ones intermixed. The colour varies a good deal, the general tint being greyish-black, with head and neck pale or whitish, and with a broad black patch over the eye.

Some have been found almost wholly white, with the black eye-streak and only a portion of the longer hairs black, so that much stress cannot be laid on the colouring; the tail is blackish at the base, whitish and compressed at the tip. Mr. Blanford says: "The small scales covering the tail are indistinctly arranged in rings and sub-imbricate; on the lower surface the scales are convex and distinctly imbricate, the bristles arising from the interstices.

Thus the under surface of the tail is very rough, and may probably be of use to the animal in climbing." He also refers to the fact that the claws of his specimen are not retractile, and mentions that in the original description both in Latin and English the retractability of the claws is pointed out as a distinction between _Gymnura_ and _Tupaia_. In the description given of the Sumatran animal both by Dallas and Cuvier nothing is mentioned about this feature.

SIZE.--A Sumatran specimen: head and body, 14 inches; tail, 12 inches.

Mr. Blanford's specimen: head and body, 12 inches; tail, 8.5.

Mr. Blanford was informed by Mr. Davison, who obtained it in Burmah, that the _Gymnura_ is purely nocturnal in its habits, and lives under the roots of trees. It has a peculiar and most offensive smell, resembling decomposed cooked vegetables. The Bulau has not the power of rolling itself up like the hedgehog, nor have the similar forms of insectivores which resemble the hedgehog in some respects, such as the Tenrecs (_Centetes_), Tendracs (_Ericulus_), and Sokinahs (_Echinops_) of Madagascar.

CARNIVORA.

Speaking generally, the whole range of mammals between the _Quadrumana_ and the _Rodentia_ are _carnivorous_ with few exceptions, yet there is one family which, from its muscular development and dent.i.tion, is pre-eminently flesh-eating, as Cuvier aptly remarks, "the sanguinary appet.i.te is combined with the force necessary for its gratification." Their forms are agile and muscular; their circulation and respiration rapid. As Professor Kitchen Parker graphically writes: "This group, which comprises all the great beasts of prey, is one of the most compact as well as the most interesting among the mammalia. So many of the animals contained in it have become 'familiar in our mouths as household words,'

bearing as they do an important part in fable, in travel, and even in history; so many of them are of such wonderful beauty, so many of such terrible ferocity, that no one can fail to be interested in them, even apart from the fact likely to influence us more in their favour than any other, that the two home pets, which of all others are the commonest and the most interesting, belong to the group. No one who has had a dog friend, no one who has watched the wonderful instance of maternal love afforded by a cat with her kittens, no one who loves riding across country after a fox, no lady with a taste for handsome furs, no boy who has read of lion and tiger hunts and has longed to emulate the doughty deeds of the hunter, can fail to be interested in an a.s.semblage which furnishes animals at once so useful, so beautiful and so destructive. It must not be supposed from the name of this group that all its members are exclusively flesh-eaters, and indeed it will be hardly necessary to warn the reader against falling into this mistake, as there are few people who have never given a dog a biscuit, or a bear a bun. Still both the dog and several kinds of bears prefer flesh-meat when they can get it, but there are some bears which live almost exclusively on fruit, and are, therefore, in strictness not carnivorous at all. The name must, however, be taken as a sort of general t.i.tle for a certain set of animals which have certain characteristics in common, and which differ from all other animals in particular ways." I would I had more s.p.a.ce at my disposal for further quotations from Professor Parker's 'General Remarks on the Land Carnivora,' his style is so graphic.

The dent.i.tion of the Carnivora varies according to the exclusiveness of their fleshy diet, and the nature of that diet.

In taking two typical forms I give below sketches from skulls in my possession of the tiger, and the common Indian black bear; the one has trenchant cutting teeth which work up and down, the edges sliding past each other just like a pair of scissors; the other has flat crowned molars adapted for triturating the roots and herbage on which it feeds. A skull of an old bear which I have has molars of which the crowns are worn almost smooth from attrition. In the most carnivorous forms the tubercular molars are almost rudimentary.

[Figure: Dent.i.tion of Tiger and Indian Black Bear]

The skull exhibits peculiar features for the attachment of the necessary powerful muscles. The bones of the face are short in comparison with the _cranial_ portion of the skull (the reverse of the _Herbivores_); the strongly built zygomatic arch, the roughened ridges and the broad ascending ramus of the lower jaw, all afford place for the attachment of the immense muscular development. Then the hinge of the jaw is peculiar; it allows of no lateral motion, as in the ruminants; the _condyle_, or hinge-bolt of a tiger's jaw (taken from the largest in my collection), measures two inches, and as this fits accurately into its corresponding (glenoid) cavity, there can be no side motion, but a vertical chopping one only. The skeleton of a typical carnivore is the perfection of strength and suppleness. The tissue of the bones is dense and white; the head small and beautifully articulated; the spine flexible yet strong. In those which show the greatest activity, such as the cats, civets and dogs, the spinous processes, especially in the lumbar region, are greatly developed--more so than in the bears. These serve for the attachment of the powerful muscles of the neck and back. The clavicle or collar-bone is wanting, or but rudimentary. The stomach is simple; the intestinal ca.n.a.l short; liver lobed; organs of sight, hearing, and smell much developed.

Now we come to the divisions into which this group has been separated by naturalists. I shall not attempt to describe the various systems, but take the one which appears to me the simplest and best to fit in with Cuvier's general arrangement, which I have followed. Modern zoologists have divided the family into two great groups--the _Fissipedia_ (split-feet) or land Carnivora, and the _Pinnipedia_ (fin-feet) or water Carnivora. Of the land Carnivora some naturalists have made the following three groups on the characteristics of the feet, _viz_., _Plantigrada_, _Sub-plantigrada_ and _Digitigrada_. The dogs and cats, it is well known, walk on their toes--they are the _Digitigrada_; the bears and allied forms on the palms of their hands and soles of their feet, more or less, and thus form the other two divisions, but there is another cla.s.sification which recommends itself by its simplicity and accuracy. Broadly speaking, there are three types of land carnivores--the cat, the dog, and the bear, which have been scientifically named _AEluroidea_ (from the Greek _ailouros_, a cat); _Cynoidea_ (from _kuon_, a dog); and _Arctoidea_ (from _arctos_, a bear). The distinction is greater between the families of _Digitigrades_, the cat and dog, than between the _Plantigrades_ and _Sub-plantigrades_, and therefore I propose to adopt the following arrangement:--

I. ARCTOIDEA _Plantigrades_.

_Sub-plantigrades_.

II. AELUROIDEA _Digitigrades_.

III. CYNOIDEA

I may here remark that the Insectivora are in most cases plantigrade, therefore the term is not an apposite one as applied to the bear and bear-like animals only, but in treating of them under the term _Arctoidea_ we may divide them again into _Plantigrades_ and _Sub-plantigrades_.

ARCTOIDEA.

PLANTIGRADA.

_URSIDAE_.

The bears differ from the dogs and cats widely in form and manner, and diet. The cat has a light springy action, treading on the tips of its toes, a well-knit body glistening in a silky coat, often richly variegated, "a clean cut," rounded face, with beautifully chiselled nostrils and thin lips, and lives exclusively on flesh. The bear shambles along with an awkward gait, placing the entire sole of his foot on the ground; he has rough dingy fur, a snout like a pig's, and is chiefly a vegetarian--and in respect to this last peculiarity his dent.i.tion is modified considerably: the incisors are large, tri-cuspidate; the canines somewhat smaller than in the restricted carnivora; these are followed by three small teeth, which usually fall out at an early period, then comes a permanent premolar of considerable size, succeeded by two molars in the upper, and three in the under jaw. The dental formula is therefore: Inc., 3--3/3--3; can., 1--1/1--1; premolars, 4--4/4--4; molars, 2--2/3--3. In actual numbers this formula agrees with that for the dogs; but the form of the teeth is very different, inasmuch as the large premolars and the molars have flat tuberculated crowns, const.i.tuting them true grinders, instead of the trenchant shape of the cats, which is also, to a modified extent, possessed by the dogs, of which the last two molars have, instead of cutting edges, a grinding surface with four cusps. The trenchant character is entirely lost in the bear, even in the carnivorous species which exhibit no material difference in the teeth, any more than, as I mentioned at the commencement of this work, do the teeth of the human race, be they as carnivorous as the Esquimaux, or vegetarian as the Hindu.

[Figure: Dent.i.tion of Bear.]

[Figure: Skull of Bear (under view).]

There is also another peculiarity in the bear's skull as compared with the cat's. In the latter there is a considerable bulging below the aperture of the ear called the _bulla tympani_, or bulb of the drum. This is almost wanting in the bear, and it would be interesting to know whether this much affects its hearing. I myself am of opinion that bears are not acute in this sense, but then my experience has been with the common Indian _Ursus_, or _Melursus l.a.b.i.atus_ only, and the skulls of this species in my possession strongly exhibit this peculiarity.[6] The cylindrical bones resemble those of man nearer than any other animal, the _femur_ especially; and a skinned bear has a most absurd resemblance to a robust human being. The sole of the hind foot leaves a mark not unlike that of a human print.

[Footnote 6: On referring to Mr. Sanderson's interesting book, 'Thirteen Years among the Wild Beasts of India,' and General Shakespear's 'Wild Sports,' I find that both those authors corroborate my a.s.sertion that the sloth bear is deficient in the sense of hearing. Captain Baldwin, however, thinks otherwise; but the evidence seems to be against him in this respect.]

The Brown Bear of Europe (_Ursus arctos_) is the type of the family, and has been known from the earliest ages--I may say safely prehistoric ages, for its bones have been frequently found in post-pliocene formations along with those of other animals of which some are extinct. An extinct species of bear, _Ursus spelaeus_, commonly called the Cave Bear, seems to have been the ancestor of the Brown Bear which still is found in various parts of Europe, and is said to have been found within historic times in Great Britain.

The bear of which we have the oldest record is almost the same as our Indian Brown or Snow Bear. Our bear (_U. Isabellinus_) is but a variety of _U. Syriacus_, which was the one slain by David, and is spoken of in various parts of the Bible. It is the nearest approach we have to the European _U. arctos_.

NO. 163. URSUS ISABELLINUS.

_The Himalayan Brown Bear_ (_Jerdon's No. 89_).

NATIVE NAME.--_Barf-ka-rich_ or _Bhalu_, Hind.; _Harput_, Kashmiri; _Drin-mor_, Ladakhi.

[Figure: _URSUS ISABELLINUS_.]

DESCRIPTION.--A yellowish-brown colour, varying somewhat according to s.e.x and time of year. Jerdon says: "In winter and spring the fur is long and s.h.a.ggy, in some inclining to silvery grey, in others to reddish brown; the hair is thinner and darker in summer as the season advances, and in autumn the under fur has mostly disappeared, and a white collar on the chest is then very apparent. The cubs show this collar distinctly. The females are said to be lighter in colour than the males."

Gray does not agree in the theory that _Ursus Syriacus_ is the same as this species; in external appearance he says it is the same, but there are differences in the skull; the nose is broader, and the depression in the forehead less. The zygomatic arch is wider and stronger; the lower jaw stronger and higher, and the upper tubercular grinders shorter and thicker than in _Ursus Isabellinus_.

"It is found," Jerdon says, "only on the Himalayas and at great elevations in summer close to the snow. In autumn they descend lower, coming into the forests to feed on various fruits, seeds, acorns, hips of rose-bushes, &c., and often coming close to villages to plunder apples, walnuts, apricots, buckwheat, &c. Their usual food in spring and summer is gra.s.s and roots. They also feed on various insects, and are seen turning over stones to look for scorpions (it is said) and insects that harbour in such places. In winter they retreat to caves, remaining in a state of semi-torpidity, issuing forth in March and April. Occasionally they are said to kill sheep or goats, often wantonly, apparently, as they do not feed upon them.

They litter in April and May, the female having generally two cubs.

This bear does not climb trees well."

The next three species belong to the group of Sun Bears; _Helarctos_ of some authors.

NO. 164. URSUS (HELARCTOS) TORQUATUS _vel_ TIBETa.n.u.s.

_The Himalayan Black Bear_ (_Jerdon's No. 90_).

NATIVE NAME.--_Bhalu_, Hind.; _Thom_, Bhot.; _Sona_, Lepcha.

HABITAT.--The Himalayas, Nepal, a.s.sam, Eastern Siberia, and China.

[Figure: _URSUS TIBETa.n.u.s_.]

DESCRIPTION.--Entirely black, with the exception of a broad white V-shaped mark on the chest and a white chin. Neck thick, head flattened; ears large; claws very long and curved; fur short; body and head more slender than the preceding species.