.]

DESCRIPTION.--The _Ailuropus_ has a thick-set heavy form. His head
is short, rather slender in front, but extremely enlarged in the
middle and after part; the nose is small and naked at its extremity;
the forehead very large and convex; the eyes are small; the ears short,
wide between and rounded at the ends; neck thick and very strong;
the body is squat and massive; the tail is so short as to be hardly
distinguishable. The feet are short, very large, nearly of the same
length, terminated by five toes very large and with rounded ends,
the general conformation of which recalls in all respects those of
the bears, but of which the lower parts, instead of being completely
placed on the sole in walking and entirely naked or devoid of hair,
are always in great measure raised, and abundantly clad with fur to
almost their full extent.

On the hind feet can be noticed at the base of the toes a transverse
range of five little fleshy pads, and towards the anterior extremity
of the metatarsal region another naked cushion placed transversely;
but between these parts, as well as the posterior two-thirds of the
planta, the hair is as abundant and as long almost as on the upper
part of the foot. In the fore-limbs the disposition is much the same,
though the metacarpal cushion may be larger; and there is another
fleshy pad without hair near the claws.

The _Ailuropus_ is thus an animal not strictly plantigrade, like the
Bears in general, or the same as the Polar Bear, of which the feet,
although placed flat on the earth, are not devoid of hair; but, on
the contrary, the _Ailuropus_ resembles the _Ailurus_, which is
semi-plantigrade, yet hairy under Its soles.

The colouring of the _Ailuropus_ is remarkable: it is white with the
exception of the circumferences of the eyes, the ears, the shoulders,
and the lower part of the neck which are entirely black. These stand
out clearly on a groundwork of slightly yellowish-white; the spots
round the eyes are circular, and give a strange aspect to the animal;
those on the shoulders represent a sort of band placed transversely
across the withers, widening as they descend downwards to lower limbs.
The hinder limbs are also black from the lower part of the thigh down
to the toes, but the haunches, as also the greater part of the tail,
are as white as the back and belly; the colouring is the same in young
and old. The fur is long, thick, and coarse, like that of the bears.

From the general