1080 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



that a mother Blackbear and her young had been using it in 

 pig fashion. The hunters there said wallowing was a constant 

 practice of Blackbears in hot weather when flies were trouble- 

 some, or when they were shedding their coats. This, however, 

 was on September 21. 



Another kind of wallowing is indulged in by these Bears. 

 I once called attention in Recreation Magazine to the trick of 

 rolling in carrion, that is common to dogs and Wolves. Among 

 the comments called forth was the following: 



"Having read in Recreation of dogs rolling in carrion, and 

 having seen them do it, I can add another animal to the list, 

 which I have not seen mentioned, and that is a Blackbear. I 

 have a cub about four months old to whom I gave some cooked 

 fish that had been left over from supper the night before. 

 Instead of eating it, he took it out of the pan and began to roll 

 in it, rubbing his head and shoulder the same as I have seen 

 dogs do."^- 



'All animals are omnivorous, especially the Blackbear,' 

 might properly have appeared in a certain celebrated essay on 

 Beasts. The Bears, like the Coons, are quite omnivorous at all 

 times. The Weasels will eat fruit, if hard put, but prefer meat 

 at all times. The Muskrat will eat fruit if starving, but prefers 

 vegetables at all times. But the Bears and Coons prefer all 

 things eatable at all times without asking whether they be 

 animal, vegetable, or unholy man-made compounds. A list 

 of the Bear's staples is not a list of what it likes, but of what 

 it can get. 



During the early spring the chief supply of the Blackbear 

 is roots. In Manitoba they are said to feed on the roots of the 

 Sand-flower or Prairie Crocus {Anemone patens) and the In- 

 dian potato {Psoralea escidenta). In the mountains the hunters 

 described the earliest spring Bear food as a fibrous white root 

 which I could not identify. To this it adds grass shoots, bark 

 of young trees, any insect, and every stray Mouse or morsel 

 of carrion that it can pick up. 



" James W. Nicol, Moore, Wash., in Recreation Magazine, March, 1900, p. 223. 



