Against the intense cold of its Arctic home the white bear is well protected by its long and dense coat, as well as by the thick layer of fat underlying the skin. By means of the hairy covering of the soles of the feet—which in other bears are naked—the animal is enabled to obtain a firm foothold on the ice; upon which, as well as on land, it is a swift and long-winded runner. As special adaptations in the bodily form to swimming and diving, may be mentioned the thin, compressed body, the long neck, the small ears, and the long pointed head, which offer the least possible resistance to progression in water. The strong limbs, with broad paws and webs between the toes, form efficient oars when swimming; while the oily nature of the fur keeps the water off the body. The white bear is, in fact, as admirably adapted to a life among the Arctic ice as is the lion to the deserts of Africa; and both animals may be regarded as the absolute rulers of their respective domains.
In the pursuit of its prey the polar bear displays great craft and ingenuity. When it spies a seal sleeping by a hole in the ice, or on the edge of an ice-floe, if it succeeds in approaching undetected, it glides swiftly and silently into the water, swims a certain distance under the surface, and then rises to observe the situation of its victim. In this manner, by alternate dives and risings, it progresses till within a short distance, when it makes a final dive, to rise near the sleeping seal, which it generally manages to capture. In summer these bears are almost complete vegetarians, subsisting on grass, berries, lichens, moss, and sea-weed. At other seasons their chief food consists of the flesh of seals, walruses, and the smaller cetaceans, such as the white whale and the so-called blackfish. In some districts they capture fish of various kinds, and more especially salmon. In addition to the above, numbers of the smaller polar mammals, such as the Arctic lemming, are caught and eaten; while the young and eggs of various sea-birds, especially auks and guillemots, also form a portion of the diet.
White bears are seldom seen in numbers except where the carcases of whales have been left to rot by the whalers; and generally these animals go about in pairs, accompanied by one or two cubs, which the female will defend with her life.
Only when driven by hunger will the white bear venture to attack human beings. Sealers, who were formerly much afraid of them, nowadays attack the bears armed only with lances, and kill large numbers.
In the far north white bears disappear for the most part during the long Arctic winter, and it is believed that many hibernate, especially as they have occasionally been found in holes. In the winter lair the female gives birth to her tiny, short-haired, and blind cubs, which are usually one or two in number, although triplets occasionally occur.
THE MANDRILL
(Maimon mormon)
THE mandrill is a highly specialised and at the same time extremely hideous West African representative of the dog-faced baboons, nearly all of which are confined to Africa south of the Sahara, although one species is a native of southern Arabia. All these baboons have the long straight muzzles from which the group derives its name, and all except the subject of the accompanying Plate are more or less uniformly coloured animals, with, in most cases, comparatively long tails. The mandrill and its ally and compatriot the drill are, however, distinguished from all their relatives by the reduction of the tail to a mere stump; while old males of the former are further characterised by the presence of large fluted swellings on the sides of the muzzle and the brilliant colouring of these and the other bare parts in this region, while a nearly equal brilliancy is developed in the naked patches on the rump.
To the female mandrill, who, as shown in the Plate, lacks the nasal swellings and brilliant hues of her lord and master, this style of decoration may, and probably does, appear beautiful, but to ourselves it is simply hideous and repulsive, as are the manners and ways of this monstrous ape. The nature of the colouring of the old males is sufficiently indicated in the coloured Plate; but it may be mentioned that the scarlet area on the muzzle has the appearance of vermilion sealing-wax, while the ultramarine of the lateral swellings is suffused in the flutings with shades of violet, more especially when the animal is under the influence of excitement. Indeed, when in this condition, all the colours are intensified and heightened.