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Show HUNGRY BEARS. An Intorcutluu SI inly In Their Way of r'uuilln'. The black bear und lho grizl.y must be closely iiliko in their manner of feeiliii'T, iii-cfinlino' to the descriptions 'The W'ihlerness' JiuiTn'r'."" lit.1 urrfo-wntchfd urrfo-wntchfd a blaeh bear for half an hour. At lirst, he says, the fellow was ''shuf-flintf ''shuf-flintf alonfr and ruofmc in the ground, so that he looked like a great pig. Then he began to turn over logs and stones to hunt for insects, small reptiles rep-tiles and the like. A moderate sized stone he would turn over with a single clap of his paw and then plunge his nose into the hollow to gobble itip the small creatures beneath. "Hig logs and roeks he would tug- and worry at with both paws. Onue, overexerting over-exerting his elumsv strength, he lost his grip and rolled clean on his back. Under some of the logs lie evidently found mice and chipmunks: then, as soon as the log was overturned, he would' be .seen jumping abunt with grotesque agility and making quick dahs here and there, as the scurrying little rodent turned and twisted, until at last he put his paw on it and scooped it into his mouth. "Sometimes probably when he smelt the mice underneath he would cautiously cau-tiously turn the log over with one paw, holding the other lifted and rettdy to strike. The gri7.zlyM.oo, Mr. Roosevelt say., is at most times '"a grubber in the ground, an eater of insects, roots, nuts and berries. Its dangerous fore'elaws are nominally used to overturn Btones and knock rotten logs to pieces, that it mav lap up the small tribes of darkness dark-ness which swarm under the one and In the other. "It diga up the camns rootsj wild onions and an occasional luckless woodehuck or gopher. When food is plentiful bears are lazy, but commonly they are obliged to Vie very industrious, since it is no light task to gather enough ants, beetles, crickets, tumble-bugs, tumble-bugs, roots and nuts to satisfy the cravings of so huge a bulk. "The true time of plenty for bears is the berry season. Then they feast ravenously on huckleberries, blueberries, blueber-ries, kinnikinic berries, buffalo berries, ber-ries, wild plums, elderberries and scores of other fruits. They often smash all the bushes in a berry patch, gathering the fruit with h:ilf-lux-urious, half-laborious greed, sitting on their haunches and sweeping the berries ber-ries into their mouths with dexterous paws. "So absorbed do they become in their feasts that they grow reckless and feed in broad daylight, while in some of the thickets, especially those of the mountain moun-tain haws, they make so much noise in smashing the branches that it is a comparatively eusy matter to approach them unheard."' |