24 NEW- YORK FAUNA. 



GENUS URS.US. Linneus. 



Head large ; body and limbs large and powerful. Covered with long shaggy hair. Grinders 

 varying in number, the four last large and tubercular. No glandular pouch under the tail, 

 which is very short. Incisors, £ ; canines, § ; molars, if = 42. 



THE AMERICAN BLACK BEAR. 



Ursus americanus. 



PLATE VI. FIG. I. 



Ursus americanus. Pallas, Spicileg. Zool. Vol. 14, p. 6. 



Slack Bear. Penn. Arct. Zool. Vol. 1, p. 57. 



U. americanus. Harlan, Fauna, p. 51. Godman, Am. Nat. Hist. Vol. 1, p. 114. Plate. 



Oursgulaire. Geoffroy, Mem. Mas. (Variety.) 



The Black Bear. Emmons, Mass. Rep. 1840, p. 20; 



Characteristics. Black or brownish black ; a soiled brown or yellowish patch on each side of 

 the nose. Facial outline somewhat arched. Young with hair wavy or 

 curled. 



Description. Ears high, oval, rounded at the tips, and distant. Soles of the feet short ; 

 the hair projects slightly beyond the claws. Fur long, straight, shining and rather soft. 

 Tail very short. Claws short, blunt, somewhat incurved. 



Color. Beside the general black color of the body, which is occasionally light brown, 

 verging in some instances into soiled yellowish, the sides of the nose are of a fawn color ; 

 occasionally a white dash on the forehead or throat, and sometimes a small spot of the same 

 is seen above the eyes. Length 4 to 6 feet. 



The Bear, once so numerous in this State, is now chiefly to be found in the mountainous 

 and thinly inhabited districts, where they breed. The female, after a gestation of about one 

 hundred days, brings forth two cubs. It does not eat animal food from choice, and never 

 unless pressed by hunger : it prefers berries and fruits. In the forests in the northern parts 

 of the State, a tornado will sometimes sweep through a region, prostrating the pines to an 

 extent of many miles. In the course of a few years, the wild cherry tree springs up in great 

 numbers on this tract ; and in the fruit season, it becomes the resort of numerous bears.* It 

 also feeds-upon the whortleberry, grapes, honey, persimons (Diospyros), and roots of various 

 kinds. Its fondness for sweet things is evident whenever it enters an apple orchard, invari- 

 ably selecting the sweetest kinds. It will also devour eggs, insects, and small quadrupeds 

 and birds ; but when it has abundance of its favorite vegetable food, will pass the carcase of 



* The effects of such a tornado we observed in Hamilton county, in the summer of 1840, near Eighth lake. The course of 

 the windfall, as' it is popularly called, was from west to east. It extended thirty miles, with a breadth varying from half a mile 

 to two miles. This occurred fifteen years ago. It has been subsequently burned over, and abounds in poplar, white birch, wild 

 cherries, wild raspberries, etc., which attracted to this district great numbers of deer and numerous bears. 



