Characteristics.—Black; a brown or yellowish patch on each side of the nose.

Description.—Oval erect ears, rounded at the tips; the hair projects slightly beyond the claws, which are short and blunt. Long, shining, straight, and rather soft fur.

Colour.—Generally black, though in some instances a brownish tinge is observable in the fur; the sides of the nose are of a fawn colour. Very often found with a dash of white under the throat, and rarely, though sometimes they have been found, with a white star in the forehead.

Found from Mexico to Labrador, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

THE black bear is found throughout the American continent, except in a very small district to the north-east, where civilisation has dislodged him from the country. They abound in the extreme North Canada and the snow-bound regions of the Hudson's Bay territory; and in the Southern States, in Mississippi, in Louisiana, in Arkansas, in Texas, and Florida, the bear-hunt still ranks amongst the established field sports, and the hunters have no reason to complain of scarcity of game. A hundred years ago the peculiar and special haunt of the black bear was in the dense cane-brakes that fringed the banks of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

In these districts the settlers formerly suffered great losses from the depredations of the ‘varmint;’ cornpatches, gardens, and even hog-pens, being robbed by these unscrupulous freebooters.