94 The Black Bear 



get at a nest of marmots or ground-squirrels. The 

 Black Bear may show an interest in a marmot burrow 

 and do a little half-hearted scratching near the entrance, 

 but never digs deep or long for them. As far as I have 

 ever seen, they kill nothing larger, in the way of 

 small game, than field-mice and such small fry. But 

 they are both quick and clever at catching these. They 

 will turn over stumps and roll logs aside and up-end 

 flat stones and catch an escaping mouse before it goes 

 a yard. 



Frogs and toads are also favorite tidbits of theirs and 

 they spend much time looking for them. They will 

 walk along the edge of small streams and pin down a 

 jumping frog with their lightning-quick paws; and I 

 have seen one, when a frog escaped it and jumped into 

 the creek, jump after it and land like a stone from a 

 catapult, splashing water for twenty feet. 



Practically nothing in the insect line comes amiss to 

 them. They are everlastingly poking and pulling at 

 rotten logs, old stumps, loose stones, and decaying 

 trees, looking for caterpillars, squash-bugs, grubs, centi- 

 pedes, and larvse. Their sense of smell is wonderfully 

 acute and one can hear them sniffing and snuffing over 

 the punky mass of an old tree trunk they have ripped 

 open, searching with their noses for crawling goodies. 



Like all bears they are extravagantly fond of ants, 

 and they are not only experts in finding them, but 

 know how to take advantage of the habits of the various 



