98 The Black Bear 



feast. A chain that has proved amply strong enough 

 to hold a Black Bear captive during the spring and 

 early summer is very likely to turn up broken when 

 the blueberries ripen. Their favorites everywhere are 

 blueberries and huckleberries, and the black and red 

 haws, called thorn-apples in New England. The sar- 

 vis berry is another of their staples. They will reach 

 up one paw, draw down a laden berry bush, and grasp- 

 ing it between their forefeet will rake the fruit into 

 their open mouths. But the Black Bear is less particu- 

 lar in regard to berries than the grizzly. He will eat 

 pretty much anything in that line, even feeding on the 

 Oregon grape in the Rockies, a food disdained by the 

 grizzly. 



In the East they also feed greedily on acorns and 

 beechnuts, and in the West they eat the seeds that drop 

 out of the pine cones. In the higher ranges of the Tetons 

 and Bitter Roots, and indeed throughout the Rockies 

 down into Mexico, there is a tree locally called the 

 Jack Pine that bears a curious cone two or three inches 

 across the butt and only two or three inches in depth 

 — as broad as it is long, in fact. These cones contain 

 very large and meaty seeds and the Black Bear is very 

 fond of them. The Indians also cook and eat the 

 young cones of the Jack Pine. 



In addition to this the Black Bear has a great habit 

 of peeling the bark off of balsam and of Jack Pine 

 saplings, and of lapping the juices and gum from the 



