186 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
his fire for fear of hitting one of them. The charge of the bear had brought it 
to within ten feet of the Rumbles when diverted by the dogs, one of which it 
chased into the bruSh and then turned and repeated the performance with the 
second dog. When the bear stopped this time it was standing broadside to me 
just at the entrance of the game trail in which I was standing and about twenty 
feet distant from me. I was armed with a 7 mm. Mauser rifle and when I first 
saw the bear, I had, as I supposed, thrown a cartridge from the magazine into 
the chamber, but evidently had failed to bring the bolt back far enough to engage 
the shell and consequently the rifle was unloaded. Up to this point I do not 
think that the bear had seen me, but when my rifle snapped it turned and charged 
upon me, covering the intervening distance in two jumps, the first of which 
brought it to within six or eight feet of the spot upon which I was standing. 
Loading as hastily as possible, I fired and dropped to the ground, at the same time 
throwing up my arms to protect my face from injury. The bear had sprung at 
me before I fired and when I dropped, the momentum of the leap carried it clear 
over me, but it struck at me as I was falling and tore quite a large gash in my 
left forearm with one claw. By this time the dogs had recovered their morale 
and chased the bear into a thick clump of brush where they bayed it. My shot 
had evidently wounded the animal quite severely for it had spilled a large quan- 
tity of blood where it struck the ground just over my head. We immediately 
followed to the place where the bear had stopped and after a short time shot it 
in the head, but not until after it had caught one of the dogs, which had ventured 
too close, and given it a severe mauling. Subsequent examination showed that 
my first shot had penetrated the animaFs heart, and although it apparently had 
made it quite sick, it was fully two or three minutes before it was finally dis- 
patched by a head shot. The bear was a female weighing about six hundred 
pounds. 
Upon going to the spot where the moose carcass had been left we discovered 
that the bear, after sampling each of the quarters, had dragged them together 
and covered the lot with dirt and moss. We returned shortly to camp, a distance 
of eight or nine miles, but were prevented from immediately revisiting the scene 
of the encounter by a spell of rainy weather that lasted five days. The bear 
evidently had a young one with her, for upon returning to the place after the 
weather had moderated, we could observe evidence that a cub had tried to 
suckle her. 
I wish to emphasize the fact that this attack was entirely unprovoked. When 
the bear attacked us we were at least fifty yards from the moose carcass and, 
owing to the thick growth of brush intervening, were not visible from that spot. 
The dogs were behind Mr. Rumble and his son until the bear had almost reached 
them and could not possibly have provoked the attack. — ^A. C. Bonebrake, 
Goldendale, Wash. 
A COYOTE IN MARYLAND 
On February 5, 1921, an adult male coyote was shot 5 miles northwest of 
Poolesville, Montgomery County, Maryland, by Mr. John A. Jones. The animal 
had been seen by several people in the region at various times since early in the 
winter, but it had successfully evaded guns. Its chances of living were lessened, 
