swim rapidly, and live largely on fish. They are more apt to attack man than any other variety. The males do not hibernate in the winter, but the females remain in sheltered places through the winter and bear their young. They are pure white all the year round. They swim rapidly, are the best swimmers of the bear family, can swim for hours in icy water, and are excellent divers.
The Kadiak bear or the great brown bear sometimes grows as large as an ox. It belongs to Alaska and adjacent islands. In the spring it wears a coat of beautiful golden yellow, which later turns to brown. This enormous bear has markedly high shoulders and a massive head. The glacier bear belongs to the glacier region of Mt. St. Elias. Little is known of it. It is reputed shy and fierce, its general color bluish-gray.
The grizzly is the most ferocious of bears, a great, lumbering, fierce fellow. Before the day of the long-range rifle he was very hard to kill, a great fighter, but now his numbers are much decreased. He is peculiar to North America, and is found mainly in the Rocky Mountains. The fur is dull brown, around the head somewhat gray. The claws are long and curved. Its strength is equal to dragging a [[../Bison|bison]], and in the days when “buffalo” was plentiful on the plains it was a persistent hunter of this animal. It now preys on horses and cattle, but wanting these must manage with such minute game as [[../Mouse|mice]]. It greedily eats berries, wild plums, green fodder, almost everything it can chew. The adult grizzly cannot climb trees, but when he has found a good hunting range he will reach up as high as he can on the trunk of a pine and there make a mark that means “Keep Off”—a challenge well understood by animals passing that way.
The American black bear is thought by many to be a variety of the brown bear. In our forest regions both east and west, north and south, it is found, still quite common in lonely mountains and in timbered land. It is all inky black save for a brownish tinge or dirty white on the face, and some, called cinnamon bears, are dark chestnut in color. It is naturally timid and inoffensive, and stands in terror of man, but will fight savagely if attacked or called on to defend its cubs. Except in the spring it lives chiefly on vegetable food. It is excessively fond of blueberries, also of honey, and will endure many stings from the bees to get possession of the sweet it craves. After the long winter’s fast it eats snakes, bugs, fish, anything it can get; when eager for animal food, it will kill cows, sheep, and steal from the pig-pen; in the fall, nuts, acorns, wild grapes and mushrooms vary its fare. The black bear usually carries its head low, and is highest in the middle of its back. It climbs with ease and runs swiftly. The young cubs are very playful and good tempered, but grow to be much too rough for close association. See Hornaday: American Natural History; Stone and Cram: American Animals.
Bear, Greater and Lesser, two groups of stars or constellations in the northern sky. In the Great Bear are seven very bright stars, forming the “dipper.” The body of the “dipper” is made by four stars forming a quadrangle, the other three, which make the handle, being nearly in a straight line. The straight line which passes through the two stars on the side opposite the handle, passes also very nearly through the [[../Pole Star|pole star]]; distant about five times the length between the two stars. These two stars are therefore called the pointers. In the Lesser Bear a group of stars also forms a dipper, but the stars are not nearly so bright.
The end of the Little Bear’s tail is the Pole Star, which lies almost exactly over the north pole. The Great Dipper is easily recognized by the star-gazer, and remembering the pointers, then locate the Pole Star, and the Little Dipper may readily be found. In most star-maps these constellations are called by their Latin names, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. See Ball: Starland, also The Story of the Heavens; Moulton: Introduction to Astronomy.
Beard, William Holbrook, an American portrait and animal painter, was born at Painesville, Ohio, April 13, 1825, and died February 20, 1900. After studying art in Europe, he settled in [[../New York City|New York]], where he was very successful in painting pictures of animals. He had quite a gift for depicting with humor animal life, and for giving human expression to the faces of his animal subjects. Some of his best known pictures are Kittens and Guinea Pig, Bears on a Bender, Voices of the Night, Who’s Afraid, Raining Cats and Dogs, etc. A collection of his sketches appeared in 1885, with the title: Humor in Animals.
Be′atrice, Neb., a city, the chief town of Gage County, in Nebraska on Big Blue River, 40 miles south of [[../Lincoln, Neb.|Lincoln]] and 90 miles southwest of [[../Omaha, Neb.|Omaha]]. It is reached by the Union Pacific, Rock Island, Burlington and, Missouri River and other railroads,
Image: POLAR BEAR
