Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/299

Rh Next to the grizzly's cage is that of the black bear (Ursus Americanus). It contains several animals of both sexes. One of the males is a very fine specimen, being about the maximum size of his species, five and six feet in length. His coat is a glossy black, the hairs being much shorter than those of his neighbor. On his cheek the hair assumes a brownish hue. His head is much smaller in proportion to his body than is the grizzly's, it is also narrower, and shows a more decided convexity of facial outline. The muzzle is longer and narrower in proportion to the size of the head. The limbs are far less massive and proportionally longer, the feet smaller, and the claws decidedly shorter and more crooked. His eyes, too, are larger, and he has, instead of the savage, rather a mild and good-humored aspect. In keeping with his appearance, he displays a decided disposition to be sociable, and readily puts his nose through the bars to receive fragments of cake or other delicacies that are offered him by the children. Vegetable substances constitute his principal food, although he is occasionally driven by hunger to steal a pig. Sometimes he has been known to attack and kill even a cow. He is a noted depredator on maize and melon fields; honey is his delight. He is a great climber,



and an assiduous searcher for "bee-trees," which he no sooner finds than climbs, proceeding to gnaw through the trunk to the nest of the bees. As soon as an aperture large enough to admit his paw has been made, honey, comb, and bees are scraped with avidity into his capacious mouth.

The black bear is common all over the eastern division of the United States, from Maine to Florida, and in fact over a large part of the Western territory. In the colder parts of this area it hibernates, but the habit does not seem to be general, at least with the males in the warmer parts. It is said that even in the cold latitudes it will