40 MAMMALS OF EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS 



in the crotch of a tree within a short distance of the top 

 invisible from below and here they sleep comfortably and 

 safe from their enemies. The young from 3 to 6 in number 

 are born sometime in April or May. They remain with the 

 parent for at least a season, and when the old ones leave 

 them for any length of time their crying is said to closely 

 resemble that of an infant. 



Family Ursid^e. 



Black bear. Ursus americanus Pallas. 



Extirpated in the county. In Lewis' History of Lynn , 

 (p. 36) there is an account of an early settler having a fight 

 with a bear. Felt's Annals of Salem, (p. 267) states that 

 in 1699 they were very common in the woods, and were 

 occasionally seen for sixty years after. In 1759 a bear 

 weighing 400 lbs. was killed in the Lynn Woods: Lewis and 

 Newhall's History of Lynn, 1865, p. 332. Felt's History of 

 Ipswich of 1834 also speaks of their being found in Ipswich 

 Bear Swamp; and Crowell's History of Essex, 1868, speaks 

 of the encounter of a Burnham boy, who finally choked an 

 old bear with a pine knot. 



