THE BLACK BEAR 135 



guests, because of the intimacy that was estab- 

 lished between the bears and Mrs. Diehl. She 

 was uniformly calm, not a bit afraid of the bears, 

 and exceptionally fond of them. This combina- 

 tion won their friendship. One of them fol- 

 lowed her about eagerly and with the trust and 

 devotion of a dog. All the bears of the locality 

 were on their best behaviour in her presence. 



The black bear has been exterminated over 

 most of his former territory, but as, in most lo- 

 calities, he is a good mouser and has an economic 

 standing in the realm of biology, wild-life con- 

 servationists in a number of states are urging a 

 closed season to prevent complete extermination. 



The black bear, Ursus americanus, originally 

 was found over the greater part of North Amer- 

 ica. He shows slight variations, but his charac- 

 teristics are everywhere essentially the same. 

 Everywhere, I think, he is a skilful tree climber, 

 using trees so much that he might be called a 

 perching quadruped. But he is a good swimmer. 

 He eats anything that is edible, except human 

 flesh, and though fond of honey, many a bear 

 probably dies without ever knowing what it is. 

 As to colour, in many localities most black bears 

 are brown or cinnamon, and judged by the colour 

 test no one but an expert could tell a black 

 from a grizzly. 



