The Bears 



bears have a mixed diet. 

 Bears appear to have 

 descended from some dog- I 

 like ancestor, but to have I 

 been much modified. 



Except the ice-fiear, all 

 the s[)ecies are short and 

 very bulky. It is said that 

 a polar bear has been killed 

 which weighed 1,000 lbs. It 

 is far the largest, and most 

 formidable in some respects, 

 of all the Carnivora. The 

 claws of the grizzly bear are 

 sometimes 5 inches long o\er 

 the outer curve. All bears can 

 sit upright on their hams, 

 and stand upright against a 

 support like a tree. Some 

 can stand upright with no aid 

 at all. Except the grizzly 

 bear, they can all climb, many 

 of them very well. In the 

 winter, if it be cold, they 

 hibernate. In the spring, 

 when the shoots of the early 

 plants come up, they emerge, 

 hungry and thin, to seek their 

 food. Bears were formerly 

 common in Britain, and were 

 exported for the Roman 

 amphitheatres. The prehis- 

 toric cave-hears were very 

 large. Their remains have 

 been found in Devon, Derby- 

 shire, and other counties. 

 The species inhabiting Britain during the Eoman period was the common brown bear 



115 







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Thti specimen of the brown bear of Europe from whiek this picture was taken ivas an unusually 

 light and active bear. Its Hanks are almo.^t £at. 



of Europe. 



The Common Brown Bear. 



Only one species of bear is found in Europe south of the ice-line, though above it the white 

 ice-bear inliabits Spitzbergen and the islands off the White Sea. This is the Bkown Beak, the 

 emblem of Russia in all European caricature, and the hero of innumerable fragments of folk- 

 lore and fable, from the tents of the Lapps to the nurseries of English children. Except the 

 ice-bear, it is far the largest of Euroj)ean carnivora, but varies much in size. Russia is 

 the main home of the brown bear, Ijut it is found in Sweden and Norway, and right across 

 Northern Asia. It is also common in the Carpathian Mountains, in the Caucasus, and in 

 Mount Pindus in Greece. In the south it is found in Spain and the Pyrenees, and a few- 

 are left in the Alps. The dancing-bears commonly brought to England are caught in the 

 Pyrenees. The " Queen's bear," so called because its owner was allowed to exhibit it at 

 Windsor, was one of these. But lately dancing-bears from Scrvia and Wallachia have also 

 been seen about our roads and streets. In Russia the bear grows to a great size. Some have 

 been killed of 800 lbs. in weight. The fur is magnificeiit in winter, and in great demand 



