402 FIELD MUSEUM or NATURAL HISTORY ZOOLOGY, VOL. XI. 



To hunt Bears successfully dogs are absolutely essential, and unless 

 one is a trained athlete the country must be sufficiently open to permit 

 of the use of horses to follow the hounds for at least a considerable 

 portion of the time. In a heavily wooded, rough country shooting a 

 Bear is largely a matter of chance ; their senses of smell and hearing are 

 so exceedingly keen that one may hunt for weeks in a good Bear coun- 

 try and not see one. Of course, they can be trapped; but unless there 

 is some good reason for desiring the death of the animal it is a cruel 

 and unsportsman-like method. 



Good Bear dogs are not easy to find. It is a curious fact that 

 while almost any hound will eagerly follow the trail of a Panther, a 

 very small percentage of them will follow that of a Bear. I have found 

 that the best Bear dogs were generally a cross between a hound and a 

 bull dog. Occasionally a full blooded hound will follow a Bear, but 

 judging from my experience, except when in company with a number 

 of other dogs, such cases are rare. The perfect Bear dog is one that 

 will follow the trail until he sees the animal and then worry and "bay" 

 him until the hunter can come up to them, but he must be wise enough 

 not to get within reach of the Bear's paws. If he has too much courage 

 and is reckless, he is killed or badly injured, but on the other hand, if 

 he lacks the proper amount of courage, he will not follow the trail at 

 all. 



In Wisconsin a full grown Bear will usually weigh from 250 to 350 

 pounds. The latter would be considered a large animal for this part 

 of the country, but the southern races of the Black Bear grow much 

 larger. In Florida and Louisiana a male weighing 500 pounds, while 

 larger than the average, is by no means uncommon and, although I 

 have never actually weighed a Florida Bear that tipped the scales 

 at more than 511 pounds,* I have killed larger animals, one of which I 

 estimated to weigh nearly 600 pounds. 



Brown Bears, which may be found within our limits, are merely 

 color phases of the Black Bear, black and brown cubs having been 

 found in the same litter.f 



When taken young and kindly treated, Bear cubs make very amusing 

 pets, as they are intelligent and playful; but as they grow up, their 

 play is inclined to be rather too rough. If teased or irritated, however, 

 they soon become treacherous. 



During the seventeenth century Black Bears were very numerous 

 throughout New England and their "grease" was much used by early 



* The two largest males weighed 489 and 5 1 1 pounds. 



fSee Kennicott, /. c., p. 253; also Journals of Alex. Henry and David Thomp- 

 son. (Edited by Elliott Coues.) 1897, p. 449. 



