A more curious case is related by Brehm, who tells us of a little boy who crept one night for warmth and shelter into the cage of an extremely savage Bear. The latter, instead of devouring the child, took him under its protection, kept him warm with the heat of its body, and allowed him to return every night to its cage. The poor boy soon died of small-pox, and the Bear from henceforth refused all food, and soon followed its little protégé to the grave.
In former times, the Bear was in great requisition in England for the noble sport of Bear-baiting. Bear gardens existed in many parts of the metropolis, in which the unlucky animals were baited to death with Dogs, for the delectation of our most religious and gracious sovereign, good Queen Bess, and “his sowship,” her successor. The office of keeper of the Bear Ward was considered quite an honourable post, and was usually held by one of “Her Majesty’s Servants,” the players—by such men, for instance, as Betterton and Alleyn the founder of Dulwich College. It has always been the custom, too, to train Bears to walk on their hind legs and dance. This they do much more easily than a Dog or a Cat, on account of their broad soles.
The Brown Bear, like most animals, differs more or less in minor characters according to the country in which it is found. The Bear of the Pyrenees and of Austria, for instance, is described as having, in the young condition, yellowish-white fur and black feet. Sir J. Richardson describes a well-marked variety as occurring in North America; this, which is quite distinct from the Grizzly and Black Bears, he calls the Barren-ground Bear.
THE AMERICAN BLACK BEAR.[141]
This animal is distinguished from the common Brown Bear, not only by its black fur, but by its slenderer snout, more convex forehead, and smaller size: it rarely exceeds five feet in length. Its habits are more strictly vegetarian than those of the brown kind. “Its favourite food appears to be berries of various kinds, but when these are not to be procured, it preys upon roots, insects, fish, eggs, and such birds or quadrupeds as it can surprise. It does not eat animal food from choice; for when it has abundance of its favourite vegetable diet, it will pass the carcass of a Deer without touching it.”
It usually hibernates—at any rate, when able to obtain a sufficiently plentiful meal, or rather series of meals, before the commencement of winter. Sometimes, however, when food is scarce, Bears will roam about the whole winter, never being able to obtain a sufficiently good feed to warrant their going, with any safety or comfort, into permanent winter quarters. With regard to the hibernating Bears a very remarkable fact is mentioned by Sir J. Richardson, who is a most cautious and accurate writer, namely, that when the Bear “comes abroad in the spring it is equally fat” (as it was at the commencement of winter), “though in a few days thereafter it becomes very lean.”
The Indians have an unbounded reverence for the Bear. When they kill one, they make exculpatory speeches to it, give it tobacco to smoke, call it their relation, grandmother, &c., and try in every possible way to appease its manes. They then cook and eat it with great gusto.
GRIZZLY BEAR.