New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-05-14
ANIMAL LORE
The Traits of the Black Bear ana
Other Forest Folk.

WILDERNESS PETS AT CAMP BU,Gk-
SHAW By Edward Bre Thc from from life life.
/ Emo, PIP. 40. The Houshto'i -i'4A''i
Company.
! If we except the grizzly, with IT'S repu-
tation for ferocity, which has been mace
a. part of it's Latin name, bears are
among our prime favorites in the animal
kingdom. We like them. and love 10
watch them, finding invariahiy some
thing TO amuse US in their antics per-
| formed with such imperturbable gravity
and self possession. And, as the old lazy
said at the zoo. they have such frlenoiy
| faces" No healthy, normal boy mas
! ever lived who has not cherished among
the dearest wishes of his heart that OF
! possessing a hear cub of his own. Next
| to the increasingly difficult realization OF
| this desire. the boy can do nothing bet
| ter than to make the acquaintance OF
Mr.. William H Wright's black bear and
Ben" whose many virtues and accom-
! plistn1ents he describes in the first part
of his book on 1.-THE Black Bear This
intimate narrative Of the life Of men,
Der OF the family is admirably we'll
| adapted to arouse interest in the whole
| tribe.
| II is like learning to appreciate ma
tons good qualities through familiar in
! tercourse with one of its best represent
atives. Nothing serves so we'll to dispel
prejudices- A bear in captivity IS one
/ thing, however; bear in the open quite
| another and it is into the native haunts
| of the black bear that Mr.. Wright takes
| his readers (who may range in age from
| ten to seventy in his felicitous manner,
which gives to natural history living
| human interest. He Is not merely sci
! entific authority on bears; he is a warm
friend of our dumb brethren. and COM
municates his love of them to us. He
| makes us realize our kinship with all
| living things.
The life of the black bear holds no
great moral lessons for us, as does that
| of the bee or the ant. He, and more es-
pecially she. is a happy-go-lucky Great
ure, upon whom the burden of the strug-
gle for life rests but lightly. Happy
Hoolisan'' Mr.. Wright calls this bear:
| Won never watch Black Bear Hhsn they
are quite at home and undisturbed without
being made to feel that they are hard put
4 grizzly Knows his business" in every
sense of the expression. When he starts
| out he knows where he is going, and goes
| there. When he starts a job he finishes it
and goes on 10 the next. =, ! have
! tracked one from ground squirrel burroW
iDcr t,di by laborious digging had yielded
/ him a northful of breakfast. The
grizzly is toorking for his luin9. and
A' But Black Bear act for all the world
like boys on rainy Saturday They've got
nothing but time. and the one problem EN- IN
coIIpIe of hours and you'll see him start
forty different things. finish none Of them them;
hopeIessiy from side to side. as though to
| say Now 1ohat shall do next?
If Mr.. Wright's frequent cross-refer-
ences to the grizzly lead the reader to
his earlier book on that grim customer.
| he will only have rendered him double
service. On closing THE Black Bear
one is astonished to realize how much
scientific information has been conveyed
to him in interesting fashion. and OF how
many misconceptions he has been OIL
vested. He will also know that neither
great courage nor much hunters skill is
required to shoot these inoffensive ami
mails. The book is popular "faunai nat
,rsIisr,'' at its best, and it is good sport
! as WELL
| 1t is the tragedy of the lives Of wild
| things that most strongly appeals to Mr.
Charles G.. D. Roberts; hence the dra-
matte quality of his many animal stories,
| a new collection of which, gathered from
various periodicals, comes to US under
! the title OF Kings in Exile AS that
title sufficiently indicates, the majority
Of these tales deal with animals in cap
! tivity. but their free life before capture
and the capture itself form in many
cases not the least interesting part OF
the narrative. The plots are worked out
! with much ingenuity, as where the feud
between puma and bear in the open is
| carried into the trainers cage, to save
| his life at critical moment: and often
there is an escape. and return TO the
wilderness. Decidedly novelty IS the
| tale Of the trained seal and its final es-
| cane to surroundings which, after long
absence, are not natural TO it any more,
and require readjustnent. Mr.. Roberts
may occasionally be led by his intuitive
sympathy beyond what his close and low
/ ing observation of animals has taught
! him into the humanization Of his AMI
| mails. the ascribing. to them OF con-
scious reasoning and motives where
probably only instinct prompts them, but
! this question has been thrashed out so
MANY times, and with so much acerb-
| ity. that one prefers not TO open il anew.
! especially not in the case of what Is
frankly fiction, and very entertaining
| fiction at that.
wilderness Pets is delightful book
for children, the pets including pear
cubs, a moose calf, q raven. crow two
gulls and a porcupine. They have
happy time of it somewhere up in the
Maritime Provinces, through a long
season that begins with the bears still