The Van Buren press., 1898-11-05
pECULIARITIES OF BEARS.
They Are Fond of Ants--How One of
Them Ate His First Ear
of Corn.

| used to have a dear friend, Mr..
Henry Clapp, of Brownville, Me-, who
in many respects was like Mr. Math-
er's friend, Port Tyler, says a writer.
Once when | visited his place to get
vim to take a woods cruise with me
he had two young bears, which he had
taken in the spring, and whose actions
he had been carefully studying. He
told me that he had often led them
I o the woods and watched them obtain
various kinds of food. He said that in
picking raspberries they stood up and
drew the bushes toward them with
their paws, but picked the berries with
their mouths. A hunter of my ac-
quaintance told me of seeing one pick
blackberries in the same way. | once,
In coming around a turn in a narrow
stream in canoe. come suddenly upon
bear engaged in picking a black,
shiny berry, commonly known as bear
berries The bear did not walt for
me to take any observations, but IL
was plainly to be seen that the bushes,
which reached over the water, he had
drawn with his paws. ! have often
seen where they have been gathering
beech-nuts before they fell; they
would draw one fork of limb toward
them and split it off, and then reach
out and draw in the other fork, often
breaking limbs two inches or more
through.
Mr.. Clapp told me that his bears
showed a great deal of judgment in
catching ants. They did not tear
stump or log to pieces at random, but
on finding log which looked likely
they would strike it hard with a paw
and lay an ear close to the side. II
there were no ants there they left it,
but if they could hear the ants run
ming along their passageways, they
would at once tear the log in pieces
and quickly run their tongues along
the grooves and catch many of the
ants before they had time to scatter.
He said that they were extremely
quick in their movements while any
ants were in sight.
I had the pleasure of seeing these
bears eat their first green corn. They
had never seen corn before, and when
o husked ear was given one he turned
II over and over, and looked curiously
at 1t, very much as a coon will look at
strange thing. Then he held 1t with
one paw and scratched 1t lengthwise
with the other. On seeing the milk
start Cor the corn had not hardened)
lie carefully Tapped it, and as soon as
he got the taste of it ate it very much
as pig would have done. / saw one
eat freshly cut oats. He held bunch
with one paw and let the heads drop
between the spread claws of the other
paw, as a person would between his
fingers, and then, shutting the claws,
stripped the heads off and conveyed
them to his mouth.
Mr.. Clapp told me of often seeing
them do a thing which I have never
known anyone to see done by wild
bear, but which they undoubtedly are
in the habit of doing, or else these
would not have done II. They would
climb tree which had a limb running
out at right angles, and walk out on
the limb, then would lower themselves
down by their forepaws and bite hold
of the limb and swing back and forth,
holding by their teeth. Then they
would catch with their paws and
draw themselves up. They would re-
peat this performance a great many
times-Forest and Stream.