460 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
snow, catching seals for food, to southern India, where the bear of the 
jungle hides in caves in the rocks, feeding on vegetables, fruits, and 
wild honey. Bears are of various colors—white, black, or brown, 
often with distinctive markings—but they all walk with apparent 
awkwardness, flat on the soles of their broad, heavy feet. The 
awkwardness is only apparent, however, for they can run with con- 
siderable rapidity, and some kinds can climb trees. The polar bears 
eat meat and fish, while others live chiefly on vegetables and fruits, 
occasionally eating fish or sheep, and in captivity are fed largely on 
bread. Bears are easily trained and often, when caught young and 
kindly cared for, are gentle and become fond of their keepers. The 
polar bear is the most stupid of all, while the jungle bear of India and 
the brown bear of eastern Europe are the most easily taught to dance, 
play tricks, and otherwise obey their trainers. All bears are very 
playful when young, and when alone or together tumble, turn somer- 
saults, and run about for sheer love of exercise, like puppies or 
kittens. Most countries have bears that are not found elsewhere, 
but the brown bear is common to many lands. The real Americans 
are the black and grizzly bears. The black bear is still to be found 
in the deep woods, which he loves, hunting berries in summer and 
curling up for a nap of several months when winter comes and he 
can no longer find food. In captivity bears often remain awake and 
active all winter if they are regularly fed; but in the wild state they 
hibernate or sleep through the long, cold winter of the temperate 
and frigid zones. 
The most ferocious of all bears is the grizzly. His great size and 
strength and the fact that he eats flesh make him feared by both 
beasts and men. Animals avoid his haunts, but men seek him, both 
for the sport of the hunt and to obtain the beautiful heavy pelt with 
its thick, grizzly gray fur. The grizzly is the only one of the bear 
tribe that attacks man unprovoked, and even he has been known to 
turn and walk away when met by a man who stood quietly, showing 
no fear and not offering to attack. He was long thought to be the 
largest of the bear species, but the Alaskan bear shown in plate 17 
now disputes this claim with him. This specimen weighs 1,160 
pounds, stands 51 inches high at the shoulders, and can take an apple 
from a stick held 9 feet 3 inches from the ground. He was brought 
to the park when a cub, and is now 11 years old. The size of his 
mother’s skin was 11 feet 8 inches from tip to tip. The cub of the 
bear when born is very tiny, not much larger than a rat, and it does 
not open its eyes for 40 days, during which time the mother bear 
keeps it from all light. 
A near relative of the bears is the frisky and mischievous little ani- 
mal which we call the raccoon, but which the Germans call the 
