58 The Black Bear 



brown-colored grizzly and a brown-colored Black Bear 

 is like the difference between a brown cocker spaniel 

 and a brown setter — one of breed. 



The Black Bear has a head broader between the ears 

 in proportion to its length and a muzzle much shorter 

 and sharper than the grizzly. This muzzle is also 

 almost invariably of a grayish or buff color. The ani- 

 mal shows a rather noticeable hump over the small of 

 its back, just in front of the hind legs, and these legs 

 are less straight than those of the grizzly and more 

 sloping at the haunches. Its ears are larger. Its eyes 

 are small and pig-like. Its claws are short, much 

 curved, very stocky at the base, and taper rapidly to a 

 sharp point. They are far less formidable as weapons 

 and far less serviceable as digging implements than 

 the long, slightly curved, blunt claws of the grizzly; 

 but they are perfectly adapted to the uses to which 

 their owner puts them. And the chief of these uses is 

 climbing. 



The Black Bear climbs, literally, like a squirrel ; and 

 from cubhood to old age spends a considerable por- 

 tion of his time in trees. He can climb as soon as he 

 can walk and his mother takes clever advantage of the 

 fact. She sends her cubs up a tree whenever she wants 

 them off her hands for a time — uses trees, indeed, very 

 much as human mothers who have no one to watch 

 their children while they work use day nurseries. 

 The first thing a Black Bear mother does when any 



