Characteristics and Habits 207 



this enforced dropping of their incognito is more likely 

 than not to be followed by the retreat of the smaller of 

 them from the feeding ground. 



I have seen as many as nine grizzlies in one berry patch, 

 and as many as five fishing on one riffle of a salmon 

 stream; but they not only came and went singly, but, 

 while there, they gave no outward sign of mutual recogni- 

 tion or even of mutual consciousness. 



It is even open to doubt as to whether the males and 

 females travel together during the mating season, and I 

 have never seen full-grown grizzlies living or travelling in 

 company. 



The mating time of the grizzly throughout the North- 

 west extends, according to locality, from about the middle 

 of June until about the first of August. I have been 

 unable to determine whether individual males and females 

 deliberately seek each other out during this time, pair off, 

 and stay together for a month or more, or whether they 

 meet by chance and again separate. I am inclined to 

 believe the latter, as I have never yet seen the two together 

 at any time of the year. That they do not stay together 

 during the winter I am absolutely convinced, and I do 

 not believe that they remain in company for any material 

 part of the summer. 



This opinion, like most others expressed in this volume, 

 is based on many observations, no one of which was con- 

 clusive, but all of which, taken together, were not to be 

 ignored. I may, for example, cite the following instance: 

 On one occasion, while on a bear-hunting expedition in 

 May and June, I was camped in a part of the Bitter Root 

 range near an old trapper who was trapping bear. It was 



