28 



NATURAL HISTORY OP VERMONT. 



Part I. 



STAR-NOSED MOLE. 



THE BLACK BEAR. 



THE STAR-NOSED MOLE. 

 Condylura macroiira. — Harlax. 



Description. — Color dark brown ap- 

 proaching to black ; body cylindrical; nose 

 long, tapering- and surrounded at the ex- 

 tremity by a fringed membrane, having 

 twenty points; tail nearly as long as the 

 body, strangulated at the base and then 

 becoming suddenly enlarged as il'swolicn 

 and thence tapering to a poiri,t. The tail 

 is scaly and sparsely covered with stiff 

 hairs. The fore legs very short ; the 

 paws large and naked, excepting the ed- 

 ges, which are fringed with stiff hairs; 

 nails long and flat with cutting edges. 

 The hind feet are naked, long and nar- 

 row, and the nails long, slender and sharp 

 resembling birds claws; eyes concealed 

 and very small ; no external ear, 4 pec- 

 toral mammae ; length from the nose to 

 the insertion of the tail 4.7 inches, tail 2.8 

 inches, hand .7 inches, longest nail .3 inch- 

 es, hind loot 1. 



Hi6T0Rr. — This animal being rare, its 

 habits are not well understood They ap- 

 pear, however, from what is known of 

 them, to be similar to those of the other 

 moles. They are usually found about 

 old buildings, fences and stone-walls, and 

 they occasionally find their way into 

 cellars of dwelling houses. I have two 

 specimens of tJiis animal, both of w'hich 

 were before me, while making out the 

 foregoing description. The color of one 

 is a little darker than the other, but they 

 scarcely differ in any other respects. 

 They were both caught iu Burlington, 

 one in 1830, in the cellar of the Rev. G. 

 G. Ingersoll, and the other in 1S40, on 

 the surface of the ground in a door-yard. 

 Their fore feet are so closely attached to 

 their bodies, that they serve but litUe pur- 

 pose except for digging, and their prog- 

 ress upon the surface of the ground, is ex- 

 tremely slow, labored and av.kward. Like 

 the shrew moles, they probably reside 

 most of the time in the ground and ven- 

 ture abroad only in tlie niofht. On ac- 

 count of their clumsiness they are fre- 

 quently drowned in cisterns and tubs of 

 water and are sometimes brought in by 

 cats ; but cats a.re not fond of eating them 

 on account of the muskj'' odor which 

 they have in common with the shrew and 

 fihrevv mole. It proceeds, as in the other 



cases, from a white viscous fluid contain- 

 ed in a sack near the vent. 



Genus Urscs. — Linncciis. 

 Generic C/ioractos — Teelli, 32 to 44,— incis- 

 ors 4 canines '—i^ grinders |..|. to 2.7. 

 Three of tlie grinders on each side in each jaw, 

 are large, with square tuberculous crowns : the 

 other ate small, most of which appear late and 

 are slied early. Body thicU, covered with strong 

 hair ; ears long and slightly pointed ; toes, five, 

 furnished with strong, curved claws, calculated 

 for climbing or burrowing ; tail, BhorU 



THE BLACK BEAR. 

 Ursus americanus. — Pallas. 



Description. — Color shining black; 

 hair long and not curled; nose lawn col- 

 ored, projecting, brightest about the an- 

 gle of the mouth, and terminated by a 

 naked black snout; forehead slightly arch- 

 ed ; ears oval, rounded at the tip and far 

 apart ; palms and soles of the feet short 

 in comparison with the brown bear ; 

 claws black and strong with the hairs of 

 the feet projecting oyer them ; tail short. 



History. — The specimen from which 

 our description is drawn was killed in 

 Williston in 1838, and presented to the 

 College of Natural History of the Univer- 

 sity of Vermont. It measures 6 feel from 

 the nose to the tail ; tail 2 inches ; height 

 of the ears 4 inches ; height to the top of 

 the shoulders 3 feet ; rump 2 feet 4 in- 

 ches. This Bear, wliich is found through- 

 out all the woody parts of North America, 

 was formerly very common in Vermont, 

 and continues so plentiful at the present 

 day, that our Legislature continue in 

 force a law allowing a bounty of ,$5 each, 

 for its destruction. It appears from our 

 Treasurer's reports for several years past 

 that the number of bears for which the 

 bounty has been paid has varied from 40 

 to 50 annually. The black bear, under 

 ordinaiy circumstances, is neither very 

 carniverous nor very ferocious. Its fa- 

 vorite food consists of vegetables, such as 

 Indian corn, nuts, berries and roots. But 

 when these fail, it is compelled by neces- 

 sity rather than choice to resort to ani- 

 mal food. In such cases, impelled by 

 hunger, it will sometimes attack and de- 

 stroy young cattle, sheep and hogs, but 



