26 ANIMAL SKETCHES. CHAP, 



sun and sloth bears of the East) he differs very markedly 

 from the Cats. Just look at Bruin as he slouches about 

 his den or sprawls his ungainly length upon the floor. 

 How different are his clumsy shape and awkward shuffle 

 from the clean-cut form and silent elegant tread of Leo 

 or of Tigris. Although taught to dance from time im- 

 memorial, he has not learnt the art of walking upon his 

 toes, being what zoologists call plantigrade. He has no 

 sheathes for his long and untidy claws. His shaggy hair 

 is luxuriant with too much natural bear's-grease. In tail 

 he is little better than a guinea-pig. His little eyes give 

 to his face an expression half silly and half sly ; and his 

 ill-bred manners and deportment have made him pro- 

 verbial as a very churl among beasts. 



Yet hath he his points of interest, this Bruin the bear. 

 Foremost among these to the naturalist is his prolonged 

 winter sleep. In the plentiful summer season he eats all 

 he can, fruits and vegetables, honey and balsam, insects, 

 fish, and flesh, and thus becomes plump and sleek and fat. 

 Then he goes into winter quarters, in a natural cave, or a 

 hole of his own digging, or the hollow trunk of some old 

 tree. There he may be snowed up for months ; his vital 

 processes are reduced to a minimum. Breathing and cir- 

 culation continue in a languid fashion, but not a morsel 

 does he eat. He subsists on the stores of fat he had pre- 

 viously laid up ; and not till spring has melted the snows 

 of winter does he emerge thin and weak, and in sorry 

 condition. With what an appetite must he sit down to 

 his first breakfast after his hibernation sleep ! But he is 

 a wise beast, and eats sparingly at first, and for some days 

 after awakening he gets thinner rather than fatter. 



He has an affectionate heart, too, this great uncouth 

 monster. Boehm tells of a little boy who crept one night 

 for warmth and shelter into the cage of a savage bear. 



