but admits of the body being reared up with facility, and sustained in an erect attitude. In this
posture the fore paws are frequently used in defence, to strike, or to hug an assailant to death by
muscular pressure. The whole sole is naked.
The feet have five toes each, armed with strong,
curved, somewhat obtuse claws, formed for digging: the grinding teeth are more or less tuberculated, and the food is either animal or vegetable ;
the form is generally robust. ‘The genera inhabit
both continents.
Genus Ursus. (Linn.)
Linnæus was acquainted with but one species of Bear, but above a dozen have now received specific names, though some of these may be found to be varieties. The dentition of the genus is thus expressed :—inc. 66; can. 1—11—1; mol. 6—67—7 =42. The canines are strong, conical, and incurved; the molars have flattened crowns, surmounted with tubercles fitted for bruising vegetables, rather than for cutting flesh. The limited power which is possessed of performing the latter, lies in the incisors. Their claws, though large, strong, and sufficiently formidable, are yet suited better for digging, or for climbing trees, than for tearing prey. The tailis so short as to be for the most part hidden in the long shaggy coarse hair with which the body is clothed. They are animals of large size, of robust, and even clumsy form, and of sluggish habits. With the exception of two or three species, as the Grizzly Bear (U. ferox, Lewis) of the Rocky Mountains, the Polar Bear (U. maritimus, Erxl.) and perhaps the Bear of Lebanon (U. Syriacus, Ehrenb.), the species are
