MAMMALIA — BEAR. 



103 



That the latter should not only be able to subsist, but even to nurse hei 

 offspring, without receiving herself any food for such a length of time, 

 is highly improbable. When with young, however, it is allowed that they 

 are exceedingly fat, as also that, being covered with a very thick coat, sleep- 

 ing the greater part of their time, and giving themselves no exercise or 

 motion, they must necessarily lose very little by perspiration. 



Though the males of the brown species devour their new-born little ones, 

 when they find an opportunity for it, yet the females seem, on the contrary, 

 to love them with a ferocious distraction. When once they have brought 

 foiih, their fury is more violent, as well as more dangerous, than that of 

 the males. Before the young leave the womb, their formation is perfect  

 and if the foetus of the bear appears at the first glance unformed, it is 

 merely because there is a want of proportion in the body and members even 

 of the grown bear, and because, which is well known to be the case in all 

 animals, the foetus, or the new-born animal, is always more disproportioned 

 than the grown animal. 





The voice of the bear is a kind of growl, a harsh murmur, which, when 

 enraged especially, is heightened by a clashing of the teeth. Highly 

 .susceptible of anger, that anger is always furious, and often capricious. 

 However mild he may appear before his master, and even obedient when 

 tamed, he ought still to be distrusted, still treated with circumspection; 

 nor, on any account, must he be struck on the tip of the nose, or touched on 

 the parts of generation. 





