BEARS. 151 



ness and extent day by day, till they are soon unable to escape 

 even if tbey would, and are obliged to wait in this icy cell till 

 liberated by the sun in April or May." 



These bears commonly have two or three cubs at a birth, and 

 occasionally four ; it is doubtful if they have young oftener than 

 every other year. The cubs are, we learn, of such diminutive size 

 that they are not six inches in length, weigh less than a pound, 

 and it is necessary for their preservation that the mother should 

 cover them nearly the whole time for the first two months. 



Mr. Frank J. Thompson, Superintendent of the Zoological 

 Garden at Cincinnati, published in "Forest and Stream," in 1879, 

 an account of the early development of a litter of black bears in 

 confinement, In which he states : — 



" About the middle of January last, the female black bear in 

 the society's collection refused to come out of her den into the 

 open pit, and would not allow the male to approach her. She 

 was immediately closed in and furnished with an abundance of 

 hay, with which she busied herself in making a nice warm bed. 

 At 4 p.m. on January the 26th, the young ones were born, and I 

 did not see them until the third day after, when I was surprised 

 by the keeper informing me that she would allow him to enter her 

 den. On going with him, he unlocked the door, fearlessly walked 

 in, and quickly began feeding her with bits of bread, which he 

 sliced from a loaf held in his hand. By holding the bread just 

 over her head he finally tempted her to sit up on her haunches, 

 when I obtained a clear vievsr of the two young ones, lying asleep 

 just back of her front paws. From where I stood, about six feet 

 distant, they did not seem to exceed six inches in length, were a 

 dirty-whitish colour, and appeared entirely bare of hair. In 

 about ten days their coats began to show and were of a greyish 

 tint, which gradually passed through the various shades until they 

 became a brownish-black. It was just forty days before the 

 first one's eyes opened, and two days after the second followed 

 suit. From that time forward I watched very closely to ascertain 

 the exact time that would elapse before the young ones would 

 leave the nest, and on the seventy-first day after birth, when the 

 mother, as was her habit, came to the grating to be fed, one of the 



