4:2 THE PESTS OF THE FAEM. 



them whenever they can be obtained. They are occasionally very 

 injurious to the frontier settlers, by their incursions in search of 

 potatoes and young corn, both of which are favorite articles of 

 food ; their daws enable them to do great mischief in potato 

 grounds, as they can dig up a large number in a very short time, 

 and where the bears are numerous their ravages are occasionally 

 very extensive. 



In the north, the flesh of the black bear is fittest for the table 

 after the middle of July, when the berries begin to ripen, though 

 some berries impart a very disagreeable flavor to their flesh. They 

 remain in good condition until the following January or February ; 

 late in the spring they are much emaciated, and their flesh is dry 

 and disagreeable in consequence of their long fasting through the 

 season of their torpidity. Their flesh is also rendered rank and 

 disagreeable by feeding on herring spawn, which they seek and 

 devour with greediness, whenever it is to be obtained. The south- 

 ern Indians kill great numbers of these bears at all seasons of the 

 year, but no inducement can be offered to prevent them from 

 singeing off the hair of all that are in good condition for eating, 

 as the flesh of the bear is as much spoiled by skinning as pork 

 would be ; the skins these people bring the traders are conse- 

 quently only such as are obtained from bears that are too poor to 

 be eaten. 



The black bear is in fact very indiscriminate in his feeding ; and 

 though suited by nature for the almost exclusive consumption of 

 vegetable food, yet refuses scarcely anything when pressed by hun- 

 ger. He is moreover voracious as well as indiscriminate in satisfy- 

 ing his appetite, and frequently gorges until his stomach loathes 

 and rejects its contents. He seeks, with great assiduity, for the 

 larvae or grub-worms of various insects, and exerts a surprising de- 

 gree of strength in turning over large trunks of fallen trees, 

 which, whenever sufficiently decayed to admit of it, he tears to 

 pieces in search of worms. 



The usual residence of the black bear is in the most remote and 

 secluded parts of the forest, where his den is either in the hollow 

 of some decayed tree, or in a cavern formed among the rocks. 

 To this place he retires when his hunger is appeased, and in tho 

 winter he lies coiled up there during the long period of his torpid- 

 ity The female of the black bear, during the period of gesta- 

 tion, which commences in the month of October, and continues foi 



