THE BLACK BEAR. 77 



enccd hunters, have assumed that the cinnamon is a mod- 

 ified grizzly, and is equally as dangerous, and as ready 

 to fight without cause. My experience of it is, however, 

 that it has the same habits as its black congener; that 

 it is no more dangerous; and that it will flee from the 

 presence of man unless it is wounded, very hungry, or 

 laboring under the excitement of the rutting season; and 

 even then a lusty shout is liable to scatter a regiment of 

 its tribe. 



The American bear has forty -two teeth, and I have 

 heard or read that it has one tooth more than the Euro- 

 pean species. It is naturally sluggish in character, and 

 keeps to the densest parts of the woods, where the shrub- 

 bery is most profuse. Its usual haunts are caverns or hol- 

 low trees, and in these retreats it passes away a large por- 

 tion of its time in dozing and sleeping. It is ever on the 

 alert for foes, however, and unless the hunter approaches its 

 lair from the leeward, he is liable to be detected by the ap- 

 parent sluggard. It is omnivorous in taste; and it seems 

 to matter little to it whether it eats ants, grubs, eggs, 

 berries, roots, grapes and fruit generally, or mice, moles, 

 squirrels, and other small animals. Its presence may be 

 readily detected in the woods during the summer by the 

 large number of berries stripped off the bushes, and the 

 torn condition of the soil where it has been digging for 

 roots. In the Far North-west it frequents thickets where 

 a species of buckthorn (Frangula parshiana) grows, and 

 devours its fruit with great gusto, though to man it proves 

 a violent cathartic. I have seldom known a bear to attack 

 other animals of large size unless provoked to do so by 

 hunger, and, when that was appeased, it relapsed into its 

 usual harmless condition. This quiet disposition is readi- 

 ly accounted for by its dental formation ; for that proves 

 at once that nature intended it to live principally on fruits, 

 vegetables, and roots. Its greatest weakness of appetite 

 seems to be a fondness for honey, and, to obtain that, it 

 will face the attacks of all the bees on earth, even if they 

 should cause its muzzle to swell to the size of a small bal- 



