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Show ON THE MALAY BEAR IN TIBET. * 9 9 7 5. Oil the Occurrence of the Bruang in the Tibetan Province. Bv R . L y d e k k e r . [Received December 4, 1906.] (Text-figure 142.) That the eastern end of the Tibetan area, that is to say the Moupin district of Tibet proper and the western portions of the Chinese provinces of Kansu and Sze-chuan, contain, in addition to their own peculiar mammalian types, a large element of the Indo-Malay fauna, is becoming more and more evident. As examples, may be cited the Monkeys Macacus arctoides tibetanus and M. vestitus, the Sze-chuan Sambar, Cervus unicolor dejeani, and several Gorals and Serows. I have now to add to the list a representative of the Bruang, or Malay Bear (Ursus malayanus); a type hitherto not known to range northwards of theGaro Hills, so far at least as I am aware. At the time when the British Museum acquired from Rowland Ward Ltd. the Serow described by myself in the Society's ‘ Proceedings ' for 1905* and an example of the Tibetan Takin, that firm had in its possession the skull of a Bear reputed to come from the same district (viz., either Eastern Tibet or the northwestern provinces of China). This skull was that of a Bruang, but since I had some doubt whether it was really from the Tibetan area, I gave it no further consideration. I have since learnt that the skin of the same animal came with the skull; and that the entire specimen was mounted and sold to the Bergen Museum as Ursus torquatus. The skin, I am informed, had much longer black hair than the ordinary Malay Bear, with the usual white gorget on the throat. Quite recently the same well-known firm has received another bear-skull of similar type from the Tibetan area, which came with a skin of Fells script a, and has been presented by Mr. Ward to the British Museum. As to its being Tibetan (in a wide sense) there can, I think, be no question. This skull, of which the lateral and palatal aspects are shown in text-fig. 142 (p. 998), belonged to a fully adult Bear of the Ursus malayanus type, as is perfectly evident from its great width and relative shortness. Its extreme basal length is 8'75, and its maximum width 8*5 inches; these dimensions comparing with 8*5 and 8*3 inches in a very old and large skull of the typical U. malayanus measured by I )r. W. T. Blanford +.' So far as I can see, there are no characters by which this skull (in a limited series of specimens) can be distinguished from that of the typical U. malayanus; and if this were the only evidence available, there might be some hesitation in giving a separate name to the Tibetan animal. The statement as to the much greater length of the hair of the Bergen specimen, * Vol. ii. pp. 329 et seq. f ‘ Fauna of Brit. India- Mamin.' p. 199. |
