Sept, l9t>S-l 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
3 J 9 
teep hills if frightened or wounded. If met suddenly 
vhere there is no means of escape it will attack man at 
mce; and, curious to say, it always makes for the face, 
ometimes taking off most of the hairy scalp and fright* 
fflly disfiguring the unfortunate sufferer. There are tew 
tillages in the interior where one_ or more individuals 
Hus mutilated' are not to be met with. 
“The bruang' has a smallish head and a shwt neck, 
vhich is very strong, enabling it to tear up the great 
ilantains. It is also destructive to the cocoanut groves. 
\s this nut and the banana constitute so largely the sus- 
;enance of the natives, the animal is regarded as a pest. 
When tamed it shows so much affection and has so many 
Iroll ways as to make it an amusing and prized pet. H-veii 
when a caged captive it is in constant rnotion, and this 
s not the painfully monotonous, automatic movement ot 
;he white bear, so indicative of a sense of deprived free- 
iom or the mild melancholy of the captive honey bear, 
3ut i’t is an activity which seems the irrepressible outcorne 
Df a brimfulness of life. Although m many of its aspects 
:his restlessness is ludicrous, it is really amiable anima 
:>-ush At any rate, it makes the bruang a star card in the 
menagerie. It will walk upon its hind legs as if tor a 
:onstitutional that meant business, when most unexpect- 
“dly the promenade is arrested, and, still standing on its 
aind legs, the flexible body goes into a series of indescrib- 
able contortions. Putting the head on the floor, and tilt- 
ing the tailless end in the air, it goes over and comes 
down in a heap, thus achieving a somersault to a degree 
flumsy and ludicrous. Then comes a pause as if for the 
moment it had exhausted its talent m the line of ursine 
gymnastics. Now, unconsciously, as_ some humans do, it 
turns buffoon. Mounted on its hindlegs, swaying its 
pliant body as if it were a billow of sarcode, gesticulating 
with its forelimbs, protruding its long tongue to an inor- 
dinate extent, then fetching it m with a jerk and a 
ing sound— this clownish role is a source of mernrnent 
to the spectators. Perhaps this, good temper it is that 
makes the bruang more entertaining than the honey bear, 
albeit the inimitable facial pranks of the latter. _ ^ 
“If ‘my Lord Mayor’s fool’ was accounted a wise man 
by the epicures because ‘he knew what was good, then 
was Sir Stamford Raffles’ tame bruang well endowed 
with worldly wisdom. Though a patron of learning, the 
founder and first president of the Zoological Society and 
a famous author, y^et Sir Stamford is more widely known 
by his graphic story of his tame Malayan bear which, 
notwithstanding its being often cited, it would he ^Ip 
able in us to pass by. At any rate, a brief extract, must 
be given. Says the Knight : ‘He was brought up m the 
nurfery with the children, and, when ^ 
table as was frequently the case, gave proof of his taste 
by refusing to eat any fruit but mangosteens or to drink 
lly SL but champagne. The only time I ever knew 
him to be out of humor was on an occasion when no 
champagne was forthcoming. He was naturally of an 
Sectionlte disposition, and it was never found necessa^^^ 
to chain or chastise him. It was usual for this bear, th 
cat the dog, and a small Blue Mountain bird, °r lory, of 
■New Holland, to mess together and eat out of the same 
dish. His favorite play-fellow was the dog, whose teas- 
ing and worrving were always borne and returned with 
ihl utmost good humor and playfulness.. As he grew up 
he became a very powerful animal, and m his rambles, m 
the Srden he would lay hold of the largest plantains, 
foe stems of which he could scarcely embrace, and tear 
them up by the roots. r • „ 
Much more interesting to us than any 
bears are those of our own country of which there are 
T goo^ many. Time was-and it is not so vep long 
LJ_when it^ was believed that outside of, the polar be^ 
foere were only two bears in North America, the, black 
with its color phase of brown, 
bear— and the grizzly, which ranged fronx the Missouri 
River across the great plains to the 
Within a few years all this has been changed. 
told that there are several species of ^bTn 
of grizzly bears, and we know now, as we did not then 
much about the great brown bears of Alaska, and a little 
about the queer glacier bear, and have a few specimens 
of a new bear described by Mr. Hornaday 
mode’s bear This is a white bear of very small size, and 
Ims been spoken of as a possible albino of the black bear, 
but it would seem that too many specimens have been 
'taken to make this possible, for albinos are not common 
This species- if it be one— appears to be confined to the 
.coasts and islands of northern British C°lcimbia. It was 
• described in the last Annual Report of the New York 
"-Th? ™ dffleren. forms of black bear rs 
•greater than that of any of our American bears. T^hey 
^are found all through the United States, and well up into 
■SnlTLZk slopes of the continent. the primitive 
Indian this was a considerable source of food, and its 
• grease was highly esteemed. In autumn, ,wmter and very 
•early spring, bear hunting was an occupation to which the 
Indians greatly devoted themselves; yet, although the 
Indians believed that the bear possessed sorne secret 
•power, and though they made every effort to^ secure 
them, after killing one, they a ways perforrned some 
form of sacrifice and addressed the bear, explaining why 
■they had killed it, offered the pipe to it so that it might 
•smoke, and finally put up the skull on a pole above the 
•earth so that it might not be dragged about or treated 
(disrespectfully by other animals. ; 
The black bear — if we may say so — is sometimes 
brown, and when brown it is called the cinnamon bear. 
This was formerly regarded as a species distinct from 
the black bear, and it is possible that there may be a 
brown bear of the black bear type which is a good species 
On the other hand, it is well known that in litters of 
bear cubs there are sometimes two colors, black ana 
brown Again, it is known that the brown or cinnamon 
form is much more abundant in certain parts of the 
country than others, and that there are certain regions 
where it is never found. 
If the black bear has been the longest known of the 
American bears it is certain that the grizzly has been the 
most feared It is much the largest and strongest of foe 
carnivorous animals found in the United States, and we 
mav imagine that in primitive times it was rarely inter- 
fered with by the Indians. Their rude stone-headed 
arrows could hardly reach the vitals of a grizzly bear, 
even though shot by the strongest bowman, for the inch 
of loose hair, the thick hide backed by a layer of 
fat and this again by tough muscle and bone, would tend 
to protect the heart and lungs of the animal so that e very- 
chance would be against the man who attacked it. It can 
hardly be doubted . that a long and inherited experience 
of seeing all living creatures_ run away from him had 
taught the grizzly of the plains that he was invincible 
and had given him a tremendous courage; and so when 
the first white men went out on to the plains and met 
this beast ivhich had always been the ruler of the country 
he ranged in, they found an animal not in the least afraid 
of them and quite disposed tO' attack them without wait- 
ing to be interfered with'. The early accounts of the 
grizzly bear come as we all know from the writings of 
Lewis and Clark, who called them “white bears” and 
sometimes “gray bears,” and for many years after their 
journey trappers passing over the plains found these 
white bears not at all disposed to get out of their tvay, 
but on the contrary, entirely ready to take the aggressive. 
Aloreover, their numbers were something quite astonish- 
ing, for food was abundant, they had no enemies. 
All the early books tell of foe numbers and boldness 
of these bears. Pattie, writing of the year 1820 or there- 
abouts, tells how when traveling through the buffalo 
range on the upper waters of the Arkansas in what would 
now be perhaps western Kansas or eastern Colorado, 
he counted 150 white bears in one day. On another oc- 
casion, while he was standing guard at night, he heard 
a disturbance among the picketed horses, and after a little 
while discovered that a bear had come into the herd and 
was eating up a horse. He shot it, and his comrades ran 
out to learn the cause of the disturbance, and when the 
bear saw them it charged upon them, caught one man 
and tore him so that he died a few days later. This is 
all of the plains. 
Grizzly Adams and Mr. Allen Kelly have -told us some- 
thing about the size and ferocity of the California _ grizz- 
ly, a beast, however, which the vaqueros of California 
armed with a rope used to handle without rnuch danger 
or difficulty. Pattie describes the- way in which they used 
to be captured in his day, and tells also of the fights that 
the Californians used to arrange between bulls and bears, 
the two animals being tied together by a rope. The vic- 
tory did not always come to foe bear. This mention of 
bull fights reminds us of a tale related by a Blackfoot 
Indian and published some years ago in the book, 
“American Big Game Hunting,” of a battle between a 
grizzly bear and a young buffalo bull. In this case the 
bear was killed by the bull. The tale was related by an 
eye-witness. 
Bears of the grizzly type are found — or used to be — 
from the southern United States all along the mountains 
through northern Alaska. Just how big they grow \ve 
none of us know, but it cannot be doubted that their 
weight has been greatly overestimated. We have^ heard 
people talk about 1,000-pound grizzly bears, but it may 
be gravely doubted if they ever grow so large. The enor- 
mous bear captured in the Yellowstone Park fo'r the 
National Zoological Park at Washington weighed, if we 
recollect aright, when captured and very fat, 768 pounds. 
Of the habits and of the hunting of the great brown 
bears of Alaska we have been told much by a few men 
who have devoted months and years to hunting ^ in 
Alaska. Perhaps the best accounts of the bear in Kadiak 
Island and on the Alaska Peninsula are those by Messrs. 
W. Lord Smith and James H. Kidder, published in the 
volume, “American Big Game in Its Haunts.” _ Of these 
brown bears there are supposed to be six species, all of 
large size, all brown in color, and all of them fish-eating 
bears. Formerly very abundant, they seem now to be 
growing much less numerous, and we are told that the 
Kadiak bear, which of all of them had the greatest repu- 
tation for size, is verging toward extinction. Within the 
past year or two herds of sheep have been introduced on 
Kadiak Island, and the bears and the sheep do not ap- 
px^ar to get along well together. The result of this will 
certainly be that the bears, although at present protected - 
by law, will shortly be exterminated. Of these brown 
bears two may be seen in the Zoological Garden. They 
are now six years old and were captured in the Copper 
River district of Alaska in 1899, and then weighed about 
eight pounds each. In November of the same year they 
weighed, about ninety pounds' each, and now, at the age of 
six years, are ponderous specimens. The coat is long and 
shaggy, they stand high at the shoulders, have short 
muzzles and wude heads. One of the animals which has 
now entirely shed its coat is very dark brown; the other, 
not yet shed, is reddish in color. Just which species 
these bears belong to is uncertain. Possibly they are the 
Kadiak bear or perhaps one of the other forms. There 
is no way of determining that except by looking at their 
skulls, and those we cannot at present get at. • 
Nowhere in the world are to be found such splendid 
bear dens as those in the Zoological Society’s park. They 
are of great size; in each one foere is room enough for 
half a dozen bears without any crowding. They are built 
partly on a high ledge of rock, in which the sleeping 
apartments have been excavated; .each one is provided 
with a swimming pool, and in each one the bars — the 
fence which confines the bears — are set in the midst of a 
stone wall wide enough for the bears to walk on. They 
are open on all four sides. All this means that the bears 
have an opportunity to climb and wander about over a 
considerable area, that they can see their neighbors and 
the public, and that in hot w^eather they can go in swim- 
ming. It Vvfould be hard to imagine animals in confine- 
ment more cheerful and good natured than these. They 
are constantly playin.g, chasing each other and sparring; 
they are provided with plaything's, and, on the whole, 
are. busy and so happy. 
Very different is the condition of the bears in many of 
foe gardens of Europe. They are confined in dens which 
have solid walls either on all sides forming pits, or at 
least on three sides, so that the animals can look out 
only at the public in front of them. The floors are like- 
ly to be wet, and the whole inclosures damp. They get 
little or no sunlight, have nothing to interest them, and 
for these reasons they are subject to a variety of dis- 
eases not found here, and are unhappy and cross. America 
may fairly congratulate herself on being, in the matter 
of bear dens, as in so many other matters, far in advance 
over the old world. 
A part of the good condition of the Zoological Society’s 
bears is undoubtedly due to the way in which they are 
fed. Twice a week they receive meat and fish, but the 
bulk of their diet consists of bread and of green vege- 
tables. Among the latter are green corn, tomatoes, 
squash and apples, with no doubt occasionally other vege- 
tables. The bears seem to be most fond of the bread, and 
pounce on that at once, tearing out the soft inner portion 
of the loaf and greedily devouring it. Some of them at 
once run with the loaf to the water and dip the bread in 
it to soften it. The food of the polar bears is chiefly fish 
and meat, though they, too, get some bread and vege- 
tables, but they naturally are most eager for the animal 
food. 
It is amusing to note foe excitement that prevails in 
foe bear dens at the approach of the keepers pushing the 
cart of food. The largest and most dignified bears mere- 
ly stand up and look; those less in size run races about 
the dens, while the little tiny bears lift up their voices 
and yell with anguish, because the food is not at that 
moment before them. 
The Natural Enemies of Birds. 
BY EDWARD HOWE FORBUSH. 
From the “Special Report on the Decrease of Certain Birds, and 
its Ca'uses, with Suggestions for Bird Protection,” in the 
Fifty-second Annual Report of the Massachusetts State Board of 
Agriculture. 
In the opinion, of many correspondents, the natural 
enemies of birds do no appreciable injury, while others 
consider them the chief cause of the decrease of birds. It 
is noticeable that some sportsmen and gunners complain 
particularly of hawks, foxes, crows, skunks and weasels. 
At first sight it might seem that those most responsible 
for the decrease of birds were trying to shift the blame; 
but we must remember that those who are most in the 
w'oods with the birds are most likely to observe their de- 
struction by their natural enemies. 
Under normal conditions, the natural enemies of birds 
are also their friends. There is no better proof of this 
than the statements made by the early settlers at a time 
when game birds w'ere here in great abundance. Eagles 
and hawks were then far more numerous than they are • 
now. Evidently they produced no appreciable effect on 
foe numbers of game birds. 
Hawks which feed on birds will overtake the crippled, 
sickly, least active or most conspicuous birds. This re- 
sults in a survival of the wariest, strongest, most active 
and least conspicuous individuals — in a word, the fittest. 
It prevents the spread of disease and the propagation of 
weakness and unfitness ; it preserves the race. _ This is 
true to a much less extent of the. effect, of shooting, for a 
charge of shot will overtake the strongest as well as the 
weakest— the fit as well as the unfit. Hawks, owls, foxes 
and other so-called enemies of birds also protect birds 
in another way. The horned owl, no doubt, now and then 
kills a grouse ; but it also kills the skunk and crow, which 
destroy the grouse eggs or young. Hawks may kill game 
birds as w'ell as other birds; but they also kill squirrels, 
crows, jays and weasels, the enemies of these birds. All 
this may be true of the hunter also; but hawks, owls, 
foxes and weasels kill, in addition, field-mice, deer-mice 
and shrews, all of which might otherwise increase un- 
duly, and become very destructive to eggs and young 
biriis. No one knows how often the nests of birds are 
broken up by deer-mice. They climb trees like squirrels, 
nest in hollow trees, and may be as great a danger to 
birds as is the dormouse of Europe. 
Shrews are notorious flesh-eaters, and possibly may be 
very destructive to ground-nesting birds; while held- 
mice, when pushed for food, are among the most destruc- 
tive rodents known. These creatures probably feed main- 
ly at night; their habits are not well known. They can 
be held in check by natural means only, hence we must 
beware of destroying the animals that feed on them. 
Acknowledging, as we must, that under natural condi- 
tions the natural enemies of birds are useful, there is no' 
doubt that under the artificial conditions produced by 
man some of them may at times need artificial check. 
Under natural conditions the crow is certainly a valuable 
force in nature; but when we have destroyed the rac- 
coons, the larger hawks, owls and eagles — the only crea- 
tures besides man, perhaps, which serve to hold the crow 
in check — then we must also check the increase of the 
crow, or, wanting sufficient food, it will become very, de- 
structive to grain, fruit, fowls and sntaller birds. In like 
manner we have destroyed the wolves, which formerly 
kept foe fox in check; we must, then, check the fox, lest 
it, increa.sing, attack our fowls and the game and insec- 
tivorous birds. For this reason, it is well that the fox 
and crow are not protected by law. 
Partly because of the fact that the natural enemies of 
birds may sometimes need an artificial check, and partly 
because the injury done by them is often muclr magnified, 
it seems best to publish some evidence of their compara- 
tive harmfulness, under the conditions now prevailing in 
this Commonwealth. 
The natural enemies of birds, noted as harmful by the 
observers who have contributed to this portion of the re- 
port, may be arranged in the following order, with refer- 
ence to the, number reporting each : Cats, eighty-two re- 
ports; foxes, fiftj^-eight ; crows, fifty-four; English spar- 
rows, thirty-nine; hawks, thirty-four; jays, twenty-six; 
owls, twenty-two; the elements, twenty-one;* weasels, 
seventeen; skunks, six; snakes, three; pheasants, three; 
minks, three; orioles, three; chipmunks, two; raccons, 
one., ' 
Cats and Dogs. 
The destructiveness of the cat is noted not only by the 
greatest number of observers, but, with remarkaole una- 
nimity, nearly all who report on the natural enemies 
of birds place the cat first among destructive animals. 
The domestic cat, then, introduced, fed, pampered and 
petted by man, leads the list, and sometimes leads even 
the' sportsman in number of birds killed per day. 
Mr. Brewster tells of a day’s hunt by four sportsmen 
with their dogs, in which they killed but one game bird, 
a Bob White. On their return at night to the farm house 
where they were staying, they found that the old cat had 
beaten their score, having brought in, during the day, two 
Bob Whites and one grouse. 
Reports of the cat’s destructiveness come from every 
county in the State. Cats in good hunting grounds will 
average at least fifty birds each per year. I have re- 
corded heretofore the destruction of all the young birds 
*This subject -was quite fully treated .in my last special report, 
and will not be further noticed here. 
