“LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY” 
Upon the hard sides of such pits as those made in search of 
white ants the claw marks are deeply imprinted, showing the 
labor that has been expended for a most trifling prize, as the 
nest when found would only yield a few mouthfuls.” 
To this Jerdon adds some curious facts as follows: “The 
power of suction in the bear, as well as of propelling wind from 
its mouth, is very great. It is by this means enabled to procure 
its common food of white ants and larve with ease. On arriv- 
ing at an ant-hill the bear scrapes away with the fore feet until 
he reaches the large combs at the bottom of the galleries. He 
then with violent puffs dissipates the dust and crumbled par- 
ticles of the nest, and sucks out the inhabitants of the comb by 
such forcible inhalations as to be heard at two hundred yards’ 
distance or more.” 
Nevertheless in summer and autumn bears live mainly on 
vegetable fare, — fruit, berries, roots, bark, lichens, tender 
shoots, etc., according to the productions of the country. 
‘‘When the nuts and berries are ripe, . . . and the corn is in 
the milk tender and delicious, and the wild fruits, grapes and 
persimmons and pawpaws, are ripe, then truly does the black 
bear laugh and grow fat.” Even the surly grizzly, and the 
giants of Alaska and Tibet, feed in autumn mainly on this 
fattening fare — absorbing fuel to keep the fire of life burning 
during the coming winter’s famine sleep. Osgood” tells of 
a glossy young black bear which he shot one September even- 
ing in southern Alaska whose stomach was packed full of clean 
crowberries. 
“The feeling of satisfaction enjoyed by the possessor of this well-filled 
paunch was very evident. Before shooting it I had an opportunity to watch 
it feeding, and was amused by its exhibition of exuberant spirits. It would 
browse leisurely for a few minutes, then would suddenly give a bound and 
roll over and over down a little heather-grown glade to the bottom, and then 
jump up to gallop at full speed up and down and around in a circle, appar- 
ently impelled by nothing but sheer joy.” 
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