18 
ANIMALS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
live or evergreen oak (on which he grows excessively fat), 
larvce or the grub worms of insects, insects themselves, and 
honey, though when pressed by hunger he refuses scarcely 
anything, his teeth being fitted for a vegetable diet ; he sel- 
dom attacks other animals unless compelled by necessity ; 
though Major Long, in his explorations in Missouri, saw him 
“ disputing with wolves and buzzards for a share of the car- 
casses abandoned by the hunters.” When he does seize an 
animal, he does 
not, as most others 
of the Carnivora 
do, first put it to 
death, but tears it, 
while struggling, 
to pieces, and 
may be said really to eat his victim alive. One distinguishing 
mark between the European and American Bear is in the 
latter having one more molar tooth than the former, and also 
in having the nose and forehead nearly in the same line. It 
is mostly met with in the remote and mountainous districts, 
but is becoming more scarce as the population increases. 
The yellow bear of Carolina is only a variety of this species. 
The black bear will not attack a man, but invariably runs 
from him, unless wounded, or accompanied by its young, 
when, if molested, it fights very savagely. The old story of 
the bear sucking its paws, to derive nourishment therefrom 
when hungry, has doubtless arisen from the slow circulation 
of the blood in the extremities for several days after recover- 
ing from its winter’s sleep, which creates an irritation in the 
paws, alleviated by sucking them, just as we see a dog licking 
its feet when pierced or lacerated by a thorn. 
Bear hunting by moonlight in the Southern States is a 
favorite amusement, especially in Louisiana. The writer 
remembers a night expedition of the kind, sallying forth 
from the hospitable mansion of Major H — , on the Bayou 
