UKSUS AMERICANUS. 



95 



all sorts of fruits, ^reen corn, «S:c. at low water feeds mucli on oysters, 

 will watch their opening, and with its paw snatch out the fish; some- 

 times is caught in the shell, and kept there till drowned by the com- 

 ing in of the tide: fond also of crabs: climbs very nimbly up trees: 

 hunted for its skin; the fur next to that of the beaver, being excellent 

 for making hats."'^' 



Family Ursid.E. 



URSUS AMERICANUS P^iias. 



Black Bear. 



This plantigrade mammal, the largest and most powerful of the in- 

 habitants of the Adirondacks, is still abundant in most parts of the 

 Wilderness. His proper home is within the deep evergreen forests, 

 but he is something of a rover and at certain seasons, particularly in 

 autumn, makes numerous excursions into the surrounding country. 



Notwithstanding the carnivorous position of the Bear he is par ex- 

 cellence an omnivorous beast, and his larder consists not only of mice 

 and other small mammals, turtles, frogs, and fish; but also, and large- 

 ly, of ants and their eggs, bees and their honey, cherries, blackberries, 

 raspberries, blueberries and various other fruits, vegetables, and roots. 

 He sometimes makes devastating raids upon the barn-yard, slaying 

 and devouring sheep, calves, pigs, and poultry. In confinement he 

 shares with the inmates of the hog- pen whatever is left from his 

 master's table. 



He delights in tearing open old stumps and logs in search of the 

 ants that make their homes in such situations, f and digs out the nests 

 of the " yellow-jackets," devouring both the wasps themselves and the 

 comb containing their honey and grubs. So fond is he of honey 

 that he never misses an opportunity to rob a " bee tree," manifesting 



* Synopsis of Quadrupeds, 1771, pp. 199-200, 



+ While fishing in the North Bay of Big Moose Lake, during the summer of iSSi, Mr. Harry 

 Burrell Miller, of New York city, heard a Bear tearing down an old stump that stood on a point in 

 the bay. His guide, Richard Crego, noiselessly paddled him to the spot and he killed the Bear with 

 one ball from his rifle. Its stomach contained about a quart of ants and their eggs. 



