OF WILD ANIMALS 



*33 



Case 4. A Bear's Ingenious Use of a Door. When 

 Admiral is annoyed and chased disagreeably by either of his 

 two cage-mates he runs into his sleeping-den, slams the steel 

 door shut from the inside, and thus holds his tormentors com- 

 pletely at bay until it suits him to roll the door back again 

 and come out. At night in winter when he goes to bed he 

 1 almost always shuts the door tightly from within, and keeps it 

 closed all night. He does not believe in sleeping-porches, nor 

 wide-open windows in sleeping-quarters. 



Case 5. Admiral Will Not Tolerate White Boots. Re- 

 cently our bear keepers have found that Admiral has violent 

 objections to boots of white rubber. Keeper Schmidt purchased 

 a pair, to take the place of his old black ones, but when he first 

 wore them into the den for washing the floor the bear flew at 

 him so quickly and so savagely that he had all he could do to 

 make a safe exit. A second trial having resulted similarly, he 

 gave the boots a coat of black paint. But one coat was not 

 wholly satisfactory to Admiral. He saw the hated white 

 through the one coat of black, promptly registered "disap- 

 proval," and the patient keeper was forced to add another coat 

 of black. After that the new boots were approved. 



Case 6. The Mystery of Death. Once upon a time we 

 had a Japanese black bear named Jappie, quartered in a 

 den with a Himalayan black bear, — the species with long, black 

 side- whiskers and a white tip to its chin. The Japanese bear 

 was about one-third smaller than the Himalayan black. 



One night the Japanese bear died, and in the morning the 

 keepers found it lying on the level concrete top of the sleeping 

 dens. 



At once they went in to remove the body; but the Himalayan 

 black bear angrily refused to permit them to touch it. For half 

 an hour the men made one effort after another to coax, or entice 

 or to drive the guardian bear away from the dead body, but in 

 vain. When I reached the strange and uncanny scene, the 

 guardian bear was in a great rage. It took a position across the 



