222 TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



especially when surprised suddenly and attempting to 

 escape, a bear merely knocks a man down with a blow 

 of its claws, often, however, inflicting severe wounds ; 

 but in other cases it holds him with its claws and bites 

 him savagely, not leaving him until after he ceases to 

 struggle, and sometimes an onslaught appears quite un- 

 provoked. The pairing time is mostly in June, and 

 the young are generally born in December or January. 

 When about two or three months old the mother takes 

 her pair of cubs with her, carrying them on her back, 

 where they cling to her long hair. They sometimes ride 

 thus until of tolerable size, and one cub may sometimes 

 be seen following its mother, while the other is carried. 

 They take two or three years to reach maturity, and 

 have been known to live in captivity for forty years. 

 They are easily tamed when caught young, and, although 

 fretful and querulous at times, are generally playful, 

 amusing, good-tempered, and much attached to their 

 masters. 



The family of bears agrees with the group of smaller 

 animals, whereof the racoon is the type, in having grind- 

 ing teeth in considerable number, but more or less 

 blunt, and but very slightly adapted for cutting flesh. 

 The claws are long and powerful, but never more than 

 semi-retractile — as in the panda. With these animals, 

 then, it will be profitable to contrast those creatures, the 

 bodies of which are constructed in the most perfect 

 manner known to us for a predaceous life — those which 

 are so specially modified in tooth and claw as to fit 

 them, beyond all other animals, for carnage and de- 

 struction. Such, especially carnivorous animals, are the 

 lions and tigers of the Old World and the jaguar 

 and puma of the New, and a perfect type of all such 

 animals is presented to us by the structure of the cat, 



