BEAR 441 



dry berries, acorns, nuts, and such other forest-produce as has been under the snow ; 

 but these only just serve to keep them alive, so that in some districts during spring 

 they are very destructive to cattle. When strawberries, bilberries, and cranberries 

 ripen, the bears greedily seek them out, especially the last. Even bears in the higher 

 mountains of Transylvania which have become used to sheep and cattle lifting, are 

 also fond of bilberries, raspberries, blackberries, and in fact berries of all kinds, 

 holding the bushes to their mouths in their fore-paws, and licking off the fruit. 

 In the same district they also devour wild apples and pears, while when maize- 

 cobs change in autumn from the milky to the hard condition, the bears come for 

 miles round to the maize-fields at the foot of the mountains, where they feed while 

 sitting on their haunches. In the Rokitno country they often enter oat-fields, 

 especially when the corn is green, as well as fields of buckwheat and peas, gliding 

 along on their haunches, drawing the plants towards them right and left with 

 their fore-paws, and forming regular lanes through the crop, which they often 

 completely ruin. Bears are also partial to mushrooms, and in autumn withdraw 

 into the woods among oaks and beeches, where they fatten on acorns, beechmast, 

 hazelnuts, and other fruits. Honey is, however, their favourite delicacy, and from 

 hollow trees inhabited by wild bees they scratch and bite off great pieces of bark 

 and wood, in order to be able to thrust in one of their fore-paws and scoop out 

 the honey. 



As a rule, bears strike their prey on the back, the long sharp fore-claws 

 penetrating deeply into the flesh, and not unfrequently tearing out large pieces at 

 a time. While holding on by the back with their paws, they usually kill their 

 prey by biting its throat, although the paws are always more used than the jaws. 

 If the animal be too heavy to be knocked down by the first stroke, others follow 

 in rapid succession. Dogs which cannot be disabled by a single blow are usually 

 seized between the fore-paws in such a manner as to break their ribs : but neither 

 in the case of dogs nor men is hugging ever the mode of attack. When cattle are 

 not overcome by the first onset, bears will chase them about until completely 

 exhausted, when they fall an easy prey to their pursuers, who sometimes give vent 

 to roars of triumph. In flight and pursuit a bear is astonishingly fast, although 

 by no means always successful in capturing his quarry. Once, however, the prey 

 is in his grip it seldom escapes ; and on several occasions bears have been seen to 

 carry their victims across a mountain torrent by walking across some tree-trunk 

 that has so fallen as to form a bridge. Bears commence to break up a carcase by 

 tearing open the chest ; and when their hunger has been satisfied the remnants of 

 the feast are roughly hidden or covered with twigs, to be dug out again when 

 wanted. In Transylvania they destroy a certain number of wild swine and deer, 

 as well as cattle, although they rarely secure the chamois, which is much too 

 active and quick-sighted to be caught. 



In Transylvania bears come down in autumn from the high mountains to the 

 lower forests, where they subsequently enter winter-quarters. The time for doing 

 this depends on the season, the fine autumn weather sometimes lasting till the 

 middle of November, or even till December, when the bears remain abroad half 

 the winter. As a rule, however, frost and snow appear by the middle of November, 

 and force them to seek shelter ; the first snow-fall, especially if sudden and ac- 



