202 Ways of Wood Folk. 



a fearful return blow by dropping to the ground and 

 rolling out of reach, leaving his cap in Mooween's 

 claws. A wink later, and his scalp would have hung 

 there instead. 



In the mating season, when three or four bears 

 often roam the woods together in fighting humor, 

 Mooween uses a curious kind of challenge. Rising 

 on his hind legs against a big fir or spruce, he tears 

 the bark with his claws as high as he can reach on 

 either side. Then placing his back against the trunk, 

 he turns his head and bites into the tree with his long 

 canine teeth, tearing out a mouthful of the wood. That 

 is to let all rivals know just how big a bear he is. 



The next bear that comes along, seeking perhaps 

 to win the mate of his rival and following her trail, 

 sees the challenge and measures his height and reach 

 in the same way, against the same tree. If he can 

 bite as high, or higher, he keeps on, and a terrible 

 fight is sure to follow. But if, with his best endeavors, 

 his marks fall short of the deep scars above, he pru- 

 dently withdraws, and leaves it to a bigger bear to 

 risk an encounter. 



In the wilderness one occasionally finds a tree on 

 which three or four bears have thus left their chal- 

 lenge. Sometimes all the bears in a neighborhood 

 seem to have left their records in the same place. I 

 remember well one such tree, a big fir, by a lonely 



