CHAPTER VI. 



THE BEARS. 



Ij EXCEPT the great cats, no creatures have longer held a place in 

 fij human interest than the BEARS. Their size and formidable 

 equipment of claws and teeth give the touch of fear which 

 goes with admiration. On the other hand, they do not, as a rule, 

 molest human beings, who see them employing their great strength 

 on apparently insignificant objects with some amusement. Except 

 one species, most bears are largely fruit and vegetable feeders. The 

 sloth-bear of India sucks up ants and grubs with its funnel-like 

 lips ; the Malayan bear is a honey-eater by profession, scarcely 

 touching other food when it can get the bees' store ; and only the 

 great polar bear is entirely carnivorous. The grizzly bear of the 

 Northern Rocky Mountains is largely a flesh-eater, consuming great 

 quantities of putrid salmon in the Columbian rivers. But the ice- 

 bear is ever on the quest for living or dead flesh ; it catches seals, devours 

 young sea-fowl and 

 eggs, and can 

 actually kill and eat 

 the gigantic walrus. 

 Every one will 

 have noticed the 

 deliberate flat- 

 footed walk of the 

 bears. This is due 

 partly to the for- 



Photo by Ottomar Anschiitz, Berlin. 

 AN INVITING ATTITUDE. 



The upright position is not natural 

 to the brown bear. It prefers to sit 

 on its hams, and not to stand. 



mation of the feet 

 themselves. The 

 whole sole is set flat 

 upon the ground, 

 and the impressions 

 in a bear's track are 



not unlike those of a man's footsteps. The 

 claws .are not capable of being retracted, like 

 those of the Cats; consequently they are 

 worn at the tips where the curve brings them 

 in contact with the ground. Yet it is sur- 

 prising what wounds these blunt but hard 

 weapons will inflict on man wounds resembling 

 what might be caused by the use of a very 

 large garden-rake. Against other animals 

 protected by hair bears' claws are of little 

 use. Dogs would never attack them so readily 

 as they do were they armed with the talons 

 of a leopard or tiger. The flesh-teeth in both 

 jaws of the bear are unlike those of other 

 carnivora. The teeth generally show that 



Photo by Fratelli AUnari] {Florence. 



THREE PERFORMING BEARS. 



Those on the right and left are Himalayan black bears. The white collar is 

 plainly seen. 



1H 



