HABITS OF BEARS 85 



kinds, according to conditions. In the Adirondack^ of New 

 York, the black bear often chooses the base of a hollow tree, 

 or digs a cavity under the roots of a tree. In the 'bad 

 lands" of the West, bears easily find warm and comfortable 

 dens in the washout holes of rugged ravines. In the moun- 

 tains, amongst rocks, small caves are easily found. In Wash- 

 ington, "Grizzly'' Adams caught 'Lady Washington" and 

 "Ben Franklin" in a deep den that had been dug by their 

 mother in a steep hillside. 



All the world over, two bear cubs usually constitute a 

 litter. In America, they are usually born in January, and 

 at birth are ridiculously small, almost hairless, and as help- 

 less as newly born mice. Although they grow rapidly during 

 the first year, they are seven years in reaching full maturity. 

 In captivity bears seldom breed and rear their young, chiefly 

 because of the lack of satisfactory seclusion for the female. 

 Mr. Arthur B. Baker, who has recently inquired into the hab- 

 its of the American black bear in captivity, states that "at 

 Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, are two specimens which regularly 

 hibernate, and also a pair, born in 188S, which, with the ex- 

 ception of three years, have had cubs each January ( L 21st 

 to 27th) up to 1903, all of which were raised, excepting a few 

 which met death by accident." 



Bears have bred in captivity in the zoological gardens 

 and parks of Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Washington, and New 

 York, but few of the cubs have been reared. 



The dimensions of a Russian brown bear cub — a species 

 thai is an excellent understudy of our silver-tip grizzly, and 

 but slightly inferior in size — when two days old were as follows: 



