430 
MAMMALIA. 
hard pushed by hunger it will not unfrequently go eight or ten 
leagues from its home, hut at dawn never fails to return to its 
own district. 
The Bear is well endowed with sight, hearing, and smell. 
If Tschudi is to he credited, before setting out on hunting ex- 
peditions, it invariably climbs to the top of some eminence or 
tree to explore the neighbourhood, both by sight and smell. It is 
very cautious in its nature, and hut seldom enters traps ; it inspects 
objects at a distance with which it is unacquainted, and will not 
approach them without extreme caution. If it finds a carcass, 
it will not feed upon it before due examination. 
The Bear does not become torpid during winter, as has 
been generally believed ; hut sleeps sometimes for several days, 
for the reason that its appetite is smaller in cold weather. 
When abroad at this season and not finding a sufficiency of 
vegetable sustenance, it is then that a taste for flesh takes pos- 
session of it, and it lays tribute on the nearest flocks of Goats 
and Sheep. It prefers Sheep, because the capture of them- is 
more easy, for the Goat’s agility is a serious obstacle to its 
successful pursuit. When the latter becomes its prey, the 
Bear generally jumps down upon it from the top of some 
eminence, or makes its way at night into its pen. It rarely 
attacks larger cattle ; still, instances are known where it has 
lain in wait for Cows near their drinking places, when it has 
sprung on the hack of one, and seizing it by the nape of 
the neck, continued lacerating until death ensues. In foggy 
weather Bears are said to be more venturesome, as they can 
approach the grazing- grounds with greater impunity, and with 
less fear of being seen by the shepherd, when, if opportunity 
offers, they fall upon some beast which is detached from the others, 
and devouring part of it, carry off the remainder. The Brown 
Bear will not often attack Horses, possibly on account of their 
agility in avoiding its assault, or greeting its approach with a 
volley of kicks. 
The Brown Bear is, in the main, an easy-tempered animal, and 
cruel only from necessity ; it is happy and comic in its ways, and 
absolutely inoffensive to man when unprovoked. It must, how- 
ever, be confessed that it becomes more and more carnivorous in 
its nature as it ages, because the taste for flesh increases in pro- 
