Food and Feeding 103 



pigs in a pen at the rear end of the shed, and that there 

 was a hole in the pen for the young ones to come and 

 go by. And when we came back to get Ben we found 

 him lying by this hole with one paw stuck through it, 

 waiting for a pig. And just as we arrived he actually 

 slapped one on the nose and almost caught it. And 

 he was only a little larger than the pig himself. 



Of course the diet of the Black Bear, like that of the 

 grizzly, and of most other wild animals, depends largely 

 upon the locality in which they live. There are regions 

 where, of necessity, the bear are largely if not alto- 

 gether vegetarians; and others where, at certain sea- 

 sons, they live almost wholly upon fish or largely upon 

 carrion. It is never safe to generalize from localized 

 observations as to the food habits of any animal, and 

 it is only very carefully and as the result of a broad 

 experience that one should venture to ascribe to any 

 species the traits that one has observed in individuals. 

 There is one feeding habit of the Black Bear, however, 

 that I believe to be universally typical. They never 

 make caches of food. The grizzlies will, as I have al- 

 ready said, bury the fish they cannot eat for future use. 

 They will also drag away and bury or hide the carcass 

 of any animal they have found and will return to feed 

 on it until it is all consumed; or they will carefully 

 cover it where it lies with earth and leaves and branches 

 to prevent other animals from finding it in their ab- 

 sence. The Black Bear does not look so far ahead. He 



