THE BLACK BEAR. 



43 



would halt and sniff the air in every direction, 

 and it was after one of these halts that he 

 suddenly shuffled off into the woods. 



Black bear generally feed on berries, nuts, 

 insects, carrion, and the like ; but at times 

 they take to killing very large animals. In 

 fact, they are curiously irregular in their food. 

 They will kill deer if they can get at them ; 

 but generally the deer are too quick. Sheep 

 and hogs are their favorite prey, especially 

 the latter, for bears seem to have a special 

 relish for pork. Twice I have known a black 

 bear kill cattle. Once the victim was a bull 

 which had got mired, and which the bear delib- 

 erately proceeded to eat alive, heedless of the 

 bellows of the unfortunate beast. On the 

 other occasion, a cow was surprised and slain 

 among some bushes at the edge of a remote pas- 

 ture. In the spring, soon after the long winter 

 sleep, they are very hungry, and are especially 

 apt to attack large beasts at this time ; although 

 during the very first days of their appearance, 

 when they are just breaking their fast, they 

 eat rather sparingly, and by preference the 

 tender shoots of green grass and other herbs, 

 or frogs and crayfish ; it is not for a week or 

 two that they seem to be overcome by lean, 

 ravenous hunger. They will even attack and 

 master that formidable fighter the moose, 

 springing at it from an ambush as it passes 

 for a bull moose would surely be an over- 

 match for one of them if fronted fairly in the 

 open. An old hunter, whom I could trust, 

 told me that he had seen in the snow in early 



