MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 187 



Ocean Co. " A bear was seen by one of the Pharo boys crossing the 

 Tuckerton R. R. ahead of his freight train as they were running through 

 Manahawkin Swamp, about 4 years ago." Pharo, 1893. "Very rare, if not 

 extinct, in this Co. They lived later in Manahawkin Swamp than anywhere 

 else in the vicinity of Tuckerton. Around Shamong and New Lisbon [Bur- 

 lington Co.] there were more bears than near Tuckerton." Price, 1900. 



Passaic and Sussex Cos. " No bears were reported to me as still existing 

 in the localities visited [in 1896]. The recent killing of bears at Port Jervis, 

 N. York, makes it possible that they occasionally wander into the northwestern 

 corner of Sussex County." Rhoads Proc. A. N. Sci., Phila., 1897, p. 31. 



Warren Co. "A bear was seen in Warren Co. near the Water Gap about 

 9 years ago." Davison, 1902. 



N.J. in general. "Fast disappearing from the state, now never met with 

 in the central counties ; in inappreciable numbers in the northern mountain- 

 ous districts, and not more than half a dozen are annually killed in the 

 southern section of the state. The bear has been the last of the three large 

 carnivorous animals of the state to disappear before the settling and clearing 

 off of the land." Abbott, Geol. N. J., 1868, p. 755. 



Habits, etc. Perhaps no large mammal is better known to so many per- 

 sons, old and young, than the bear. Zoological gardens, shows, the circus", 

 literature and folk-lore all contribute to this stock of knowledge. A few facts 

 not so well known may prove worth noting. The black bear is exceedingly 

 wary and more fearful of man than a deer. It can be within 20 feet of you 

 in thick woods or underbrush and escape without making a sound appreciable 

 to the ordinary ear. At the same time its weight may be 350 pounds and its 

 width 2 feet. There may be half a dozen bears feeding in a blackberry clear- 

 ing, and the freshest signs of their feeding and resting and tramping every- 

 where evident over hundreds of acres, yet the most careful stalking, sneaking, 

 listening and spying will not reveal their whereabouts. A small, nimble cur 

 dog will quickly send the largest bear up a tree. If the hunter comes suddenly 

 upon him in that plight, the bear will not always wait to climb down, but may 

 drop from the farthest branch sometimes 20 or 30 feet upon its posterior 

 parts and bounce off without apparent discomfort. In its terrestrial method 

 of feeding and omnivorous diet, the bear is very much like a pig, but is at a 

 great advantage over the pig owing to the powerful arms and claws by which 

 it is continually digging, tearing and overturning the obstacles which protect 

 its prey. In our latitude the bear only fattens when the berry and nut crops 

 are abundant. Its spring and early summer diet of insects, mollusks, worms, 

 mice, reptiles, birds' eggs and roots hardly makes life worth living for a vora- 

 cious bear, especially if he has been forced into his winter den with only a 

 small layer of fat and must come out and forage after every winter thaw. 

 New-born bears are most helpless things ; much as the young infant, almost 



