BEASTS OF PREY 51 



noise at a distance of as much as 200 paces, and can scent a person 

 approaching it at the same distance. 



5. Though not unadapted to a predatory existence, the bear is by no 

 means so well equipped for this mode of life as, for instance, the cat or 

 the marten. Consequently it is not limited exclusively to a flesh diet, as 

 we may infer from a glance at its tremendous jaws. The canine teeth 

 are, it is true, large, and form dangerous weapons. The premolars, on 

 the other hand, are small, often drop out late in life, and are not, like 

 those of cats, able to tear and mangle the food. Nor are the carnassial 

 teeth as sharp and large as those of the latter species, but, like the 

 molars behind them, have broad crowns and blunt tubercles, being 

 consequently more adapted for crushing up vegetable substances than for 

 tearing flesh. The molars are less like those of a cat than those of a pig. 

 Indeed, like the latter, the bear is an omnivorous animal, which will eat 

 anything that appeals to its palate. The incisors, accordingly, are much 

 larger than in the true carnivora, and form good implements for biting 



SKULL OF THE BROWN BEAU. (One-sixth natural size.) 



off plants, grass and young corn, ears of cereals, berries, fungi, etc. It 

 is also fond of fruit, ripe acorns and buckwheat; but its favourite 

 delicacy is honey, which its ability as a climber enables it to steal from 

 hollow trees. Occasionally it will even plunder a beehive. Besides this, 

 it consumes all kinds of insects and their larvae, worms and snails, and 

 even digs up ant-heaps and devours their inhabitants. 



6. Being chiefly a vegetable-eater, the bear is neither cruel nor 

 bloodthirsty like the cat, the most typical of the carnivores. It neither 

 shares " the cowardly bloodthirstiness of the wolf nor the sly cunning 

 of the lynx." From man it invariably takes flight, but when driven into 

 a corner may become a terrible enemy. 



B. Hibernation. 



In winter, when the chief source of its food- supply is cut off, the 

 bear retires to a cave, a hollow tree- trunk or a swampy thicket on an 



42 



