1 88 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JEHSEV. 



naked, quite blind and exceeding small, needing the unceasing attention of 

 their mother for many weeks after birth, and in northern climes nature further 

 insures their safety by sealing up the dam in an ice-bound cave, the loosening 

 thaws of spring being her only hope of escape. The young number from i to 

 4, but 2 is the usual number. The bear at certain seasons, either of sexual 

 activity or in search for an abundant food supply in autumn, becomes a migra- 

 tory animal. On these accounts, especially in its search for mast, it is diffi- 

 cult to form an idea of their actual abundance or scarcity in a given region. 

 The answers of my correspondents indicate this condition and some of them 

 are shrewd enough to allude to it. Undoubtedly this ranging habit, coupled 

 with the fact that they are often tracked long distances across country by 

 hunters when found in places from which they have been exterminated, 

 accounts for their continually " turning up " in out of way places. An ex- 

 ceedingly severe winter will also finally drive the last hermits of their race in 

 such a place as the cedar swamps of N. J. into the haunts of man, resulting 

 in their so-called rediscovery after years of supposed extinction. 



I now give a brief summary of Mr. S. Nelson's long experience as a bear 

 trapper in Clinton Co., Pa. : Meat averages 8 cents per pound in the mount- 

 ains. Highly prized by natives. Heaviest known to him weighed 408 

 pounds dressed; before butchering 500 pounds. Fur brings 1 12 prime. 

 Will eat carrion when starved, but if they can get nuts will reject all other 

 food except honey, yellow-jackets and bumble bee's nests, and the chipmunks 

 which they dig out in fall for their stores of nuts, and eat the proprietor also. 

 They never hesitate when hungry to devour the porcupine, turning it over and 

 eating the contents of his coat of mail without injury. The she-bear has young 

 born in January. They are born 40 days after conception, the rut coming in 

 November, and she goes into her den, stump or log in December. When 

 born, young are absolutely hairless so far as can be seen, and so small that 3 

 can be held in one hand at a time, being the size of a half-grown guinea-pig, 

 the head very large for size of body. They emerge with young about the last 

 of March to early April. There are 2 to 4 cubs, sometimes only i. The 

 nest is made of sticks, bark, leaves and moss. These young "den up " with 

 their mother the next season sometimes. The dam does not shed fur the 

 year she has cubs. (By the last two statements I infer he means the bear 

 does not bring forth oftener than alternate years.) The males only molt once 

 per year, in late summer and fall. They will sometimes wantonly kill 2 or 3 

 sheep in one night. They also kill fawns. 



Descnptio7i of species. — Our east American bear is normally black with 

 brownish markings about the nose and sometimes a white spot between fore- 

 legs. A very rare occurrence is the capture of the brown or red variety in 

 Pa. Three or four of these have been recorded above, and I am just informed 

 that another was captured the present winter (i90i-'o2) in Sullivan Co., Pa_ 



