Nights with the Grizzlies 



plains : one party contending they were gray 

 and the opposing party that they were white, 

 each party citing his own restricted experi- 

 ence with that fleet-footed animal. To those 

 having more extended observation it was 

 plain that each side was to a certain extent 

 right as well as wrong, for it is well known 

 that the jack-rabbit is gray during summer 

 and fall and turns white in the winter, and then 

 again sheds his white coat in spring: at least 

 this is the case in Wyoming and Montana. 



So with the grizzly. He is essentially an 

 omnivorous animal : his food varying with 

 each season and the locality where such food 

 is obtained, his habitat varies accordingly. 

 He lies in his winter bed until routed out 

 by the melting of the winter snow, and the 

 ground being still frozen, he has to rustle for 

 his grub. He soon becomes poor from the 

 necessity of much traveling around for old 

 carcasses and whatever food comes handy. 

 He is then usually in the foot-hills. In the 

 summer his food is more vegetable — grass, 

 roots, plants, etc. His haunt is then on the 

 highest mountain plateaus, where he does 

 a great deal of rooting in a certain kind of 



H* 213 



