Blackbear 1073 



mother Bear came and saw the little Bear crying, so she picked 

 it up and spanked it very hard, for she did not know what was 

 the matter with it. Presently she smelled the blood on the 

 little one's neck, and that set her wild. She ran up and down 

 the canyon and cried as if her heart would break. Jim said 

 he had never seen a Bear cry so much like a human being 

 before. Then she came back to the little baby Bear and 

 picked it up (it was still crying) and brought it into the thick 

 woods. Jim said he thought she was going to bury it, for it 

 was nearly dead." 



(Signed) Beth Yearian (age 12). Salmon, Idaho, Novem- 

 ber 23, 1902. 



The gambols of a family of little Bears are exceedingly 

 boylike and amusing. They wrestle and box and pretend to 

 fight with all the vigour of gamins at play. Usually they are 

 careful to keep the rules of the game and avoid hurting each 

 other, but ill-tempered Bears are as frequent as ill-tempered 

 boys, and savage quarrels have thus arise^i in the family. 



A. B. Baker tells" of a little reprobate which, when only 

 three and one-half months old, killed his brother in a fight 

 over a pan of milk. This same authority has further given us 

 in context the seamy side of the mother's character: 



" The old Bear is a model mother to the cubs as long as they 

 remain under her care, even refusing on their account the at- 

 tentions of her mate, but when they are taken away, her affec- 

 tion for them seems soon to end. The two cubs of 1898 were 

 removed in May and returned to the mother early in October, 

 after first being kept for two weeks with only a grating between. 

 She had seemed to recognize them, but when they were put 

 together she at once caught the little male by the head and 

 killed him, and only forcible measures prevented her from 

 climbing the tree and repeating the operation on the other cub, 

 which had taken refuge there." 



Throughout the summer the old Bear wanders about the 

 home-region that she knows — probably less than a lo-mile 



" Loc. cil., p. 177. 



