404 Field Museum of Natural History- — Zoology, Vol. XL 



Josselyn says: "The Bear they live four months in Caves, that is 

 all Winter; in the spring they bring forth their young ones, they seldom 

 have above three Cubbs in a litter, are very fat in the Fall of the Leaf 

 with feeding upon Acorns, at which time they are excellent Venison; 

 their Brains are venemous; They feed much upon water Plantane in 

 the Spring and Summer, and Berries, and also upon a shell-fish called 

 a Horse-foot; and are never mankind, i. e., fierce, but in rutting time, 

 and then they walk the Country twenty, thirty, forty in a Company, 

 making a hedius noise with roaring, which you may hear a mile or 

 two before they come so near to endanger the Traveller."* 



Wood writes: "Most fierce in strawberry-time at which time they 

 have young ones; at which time likewise, they will go upright, like a 

 man, and climb trees, and swim to the islands; which if the Indians see, 

 there will be more sportful bear-baiting than Paris garden can afford; 

 for, seeing the bears take water, an Indian will leap after him; where 

 they go to water-cuffs for bloody noses and scratched sides. In the 

 end, the man gets the victory; riding the bear over the watery plain, 

 till he can bear him no longer, "f 



Specimens examined from Wisconsin and adjoining states: 

 Wisconsin — "Northern Wisconsin," 3; (O. C.) Price Co. (skulls), 2; 



(S. C.) Cayuga, Ashland Co. (skull), i; (O.) Washburn Co., i; Polk 



Co., 1 = 8. 

 Michigan ■ — ■ Park Siding, Iron Co. (skull), i. 

 Minnesota — (brown phase), 2. 



* New England Rarities, 1672, p. 48. 

 t New England's Prospects, 1634, p. 16. 



