CARNIVORA 203 



cascara tree, with the usual strongly cathartic result. 23 In Mount Ranier 

 National Park bears were found in autumn feeding upon "nearly all 

 kinds of fleshy fungi," and their excreta "was composed almost wholly 

 of huckleberry leaves, seeds and entire berries," with some "unidenti- 

 fied leaves and grasses." 24 According to Hewitt, insects constitute a 

 large part of the diet of black bears, stomachs having been found filled 

 with May-flies and shad-flies, while they also rob nests of bees, wasps 

 and ants, and are fond of fish. He adds: "I have seen orchards border- 

 ing the woods assiduously robbed by bears." 25 Dixon reports one that 

 tried to gnaw into a woodpecker's nest. 26 Rowan says they may be seen 

 searching lake shores for eggs of wild ducks. 27 Taverner tells of cir- 

 cumstantial evidence indicating that bears climb trees after eggs of 

 hawks. 28 Allen says that in Labrador, during periods of great abundance 

 of mice, bears feed largely upon these rodents, and feed upon berries 

 when mice are scarce. 29 In Alaska, during the salmon run, bears feed 

 very extensively upon fish, which they catch in the water, but also take 

 berries, squirrels and all sorts of other food. 30 La Valette long ago 

 listed bears among the enemies of fish, 31 but they probably do no serious 

 damage to the fisheries, unless it be where bears are rather numerous 

 and fishes are going up the streams in large schools so that they may 

 be rather easily caught. It would require a large number of bears to 

 catch as many salmon as one fish trap or seine takes in one day. Accord- 

 ing to Seton, the food of the polar bear (Thalarctos maritimus) con- 

 sists of fish, flesh, grass, etc. 32 



Protests are now being urged against an alleged plan to exterminate 

 the bears of Kodiak Island, Alaska, though at least one writer thinks 

 the brown bears of that territory are adequately protected and in no 

 danger of annihilation. 33 



23 Bailey, Bears and cascara berries, Journ. Mammalogy, iv, 53-54, 1923- 



24 Taylor and Shaw, Mammals and birds of Mount Rainier National Park, pp. 

 38-39, 1927. 



25 Hewitt, The conservation of the wild life of Canada, pp. 108-110, 1921. On insect 

 eating, see Seton, Lives of game animals, n, Part 3, pp. 157-158, 1929. 



26 Dixon, Black bear tries to gnaw into a woodpecker's nest, The Condor, xxix, 

 271-272, 1927. 



27 Rowan, Bears and birds' eggs, The Condor, xxx, 246, 1928. 



28 Taverner, Bears and hawks, The Condor, xxx, 157, 1928. 



29 Allen, review of Cabot's Labrador, in Journ. Mammalogy, in, 56-57, 1922. 

 ^Osgood, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 24, 1904. On fish-eating, see Seton, Lives of game 



animals, n, Part I, pp. 158-159, 1929. 



" La Valette, The enemies of fish, Kept. U. S. Fish Comm. for 1878, pp. 509-516 

 (translated from the German). 



32 Seton, Lives of game animals, n, Part I, pp. 217-218, 1929. 



33 Compare McGuire, The last stand of the bear, Outdoor Life, LXVI, 4-7, 1930, 

 with Pegues, Alaska's brownies, Field and Stream, Dec., 1930, pp. 36-37, 62. 



