34 THE MINDS AND MANNERS 



language of our bears sufficiently that whenever I hear one of 

 them give tongue I know what he says. For example: 



In warning or threatening an enemy, the sloth bear says: 

 "Ach! Ach! Ach!" and the grizzly says: "Woof! Woof!" A 

 fighting bear says: "Aw-aw-aw!" A baby's call for its mother 

 is "Row! Row!" A bear's distress call is: "Err-2mtK)o-oo- 



oof!" 



But even in a zoological park it is not possible for everyone 

 to recognize and interpret the different cries of bears, although 

 the ability to do so is sometimes of value to the party of the 

 second part. For example: 



One day in February I was sitting in my old office in the 

 Service Building, engrossed in I know not what important and 

 solemn matter. The park was quiet; for the snow lay nine 

 inches deep over all. There were no visitors, and the main- 

 tenance men were silently shoveling. Over the hill from the 

 bear dens came the voice of a bear. It said, as plainly as 

 print: "Err-wow!" I said to myself: "That sounds like a 

 distress call," and listened to hear it repeated. 



Again it came: "Err-wowl" 



I caught up my hat and hastened over the hill toward the 

 bear dens. On the broad concrete walk, about a hundred feet 

 from the dens, four men were industriously shoveling snow, 

 unaware that anything was wrong anywhere except on the 

 pay-roll, opposite their names. 



Guided by the cries that came from "The Nursery" den, 

 where six yearling cubs were kept, I quickly caught sight of 

 the trouble. One of our park-born brown bear cubs was hang- 

 ing fast by one forefoot from the top of the barred partition. 

 He had climbed to the top of the ironwork, thrust one front 

 paw through between two of the bars (for bears are the greatest 

 busybodies on earth), and when he sought to withdraw it, the 

 sharp point of a bar in the overhang of the tree-guard had 

 buried itself in the back of his paw, and held him fast. It 

 seemed as if his leg was broken, and also dislocated at the 



