18 ANIMALS OP NORTH AMERICA. 



live or evergreen oak (on which he grows excessively fat), 

 larvae, or the grub worms of insects, insects themselves, and 

 honey, though when pressed by hunger he refuses scarcely 

 anything, his teeth being fitted for a vegetable diet ; he sel- 

 dom attacks other animals unless compelled by necessity ; 

 though Major Long, in his explorations in Missouri, saw him 

 " disputing with wolves and buzzards for a share of the car- 

 casses abandoned by the hunters." When he does seize an 



animal, he does 

 not, as most others 

 of the Carnivora 

 do, first put it to 

 death,but tears it, 

 while struggling, 

 to pieces, and 

 may be said really to eat his victim alive. One distinguishing 

 mark between the European and American Bear is in the 

 latter having one more molar tooth than the former, and also 

 in having the nose and forehead nearly in the same line. It 

 is mostly met with in the remote and mountainous districts, 

 but is becoming more scarce as the population increases. 

 The yellow bear of Carolina is only a variety of this species. 

 The black bear will not attack a man, but invariably runs 

 from him, unless wounded, or accompanied by its young, 

 when; if molested, it fights very savagely. The old story of 

 the bear sucking its paws, to derive nourishment therefrom 

 when hungry, has doubtless arisen from the slow circulation 

 of the blood in the extremities for several days after recover- 

 ing from its winter's sleep, which creates an irritation in the 

 paws, alleviated by sucking them, just as we see a dog licking 

 its feet when pierced or lacerated by a thorn. 



Bear hunting by moonlight in the Southern States is a 

 favorite amusement, especially in Louisiana. The writer 

 remembers* a night expedition of the kind, sallying forth 

 from the hospitable mansion of Major H , on the Bayou 



