MUSQUAW, OR AMERICAN BLACK BEAR.—Uvrsus Americanus 
hopes that his conduct has been, on the whole, satisfactory to the dead Musquaw and its 
relations. 
This curious custom is the more remarkable, as it bears a close analogy to the belief of 
the Scandinavians, who are little less fastidious in their conduct towards the Bear. 
No true Norwegian will ever speak of a Bear as a Bear, but prefers to mention it as “the 
old man with the fur cloak ;” or, more tersely and poetically, the “ Disturber.” 
As is the case with the Bears which have already been mentioned, the Black Bear is 
in the habit of passing the cold months of winter in s@me comfortable residence which it 
has prepared in the course of the summer. Practical hunters, however, remark that 
unless the Bear is exceedingly fat at the commencement of the cold season, it does not 
venture to betake itself to its winter home, but gets through the winter without hyber- 
nation. When they can be detected in their dens, the hybernating Bears are often so 
oppressed with irresistible sleep, that they can hardly be induced to move sufficiently to 
enable their discoverer to plant a fatal wound. One old Nimrod told a companion who 
had newly entered on the sport of Bear-hunting, that he had often been forced to push 
the sleeping Bear with, the muzzle of his rifle, im order to make the somnolent animal 
raise its head. 
This species of Bear is remarkably prolific, the number of cubs which are produced at 
a birth being from one to four. When newly born they are very small, being only six or 
eight inches in leneth, and covered with grey hair, The month in which they make their 
entry into the world is either January or February, and they remain under strict maternal 
