BEAR, a wild animal of the mammalia tribe, of which naturalists have enumerated nine different spe cies. In this enumeration, however, they' include several animals which have very few properties in common with the bear, and may with greater pro priety be reduced under different classes ; such are the glutton, the racoon, the beaver, and the different species of the badger. Of the bear, properly so called, there are only three species : the white, or polar bear, called also the sea bear, or ursus mariti ; the brown ursus arctos ; and the black bear, or ursus Americanus. The polar, or sea bear, inhabits the coasts of the Frozen Ocean, and some of its eastern and northern isles, and is not unfrequently conveyed on rocks or islands of ice as far south as Newfoundland. He is much stronger, larger, and fiercer, than either no brown or black bear, and n sometimes measures o less than twelve feet in length. His face and neck are more elongated than in the other species, and lie is covered with a thick white fur. During winter he lies buried amidst the snow, in a state of torpor ; in summer he lives chiefly on fish, but occasionally attacks the seals. The chase of the white bear is a collateral occupation of the mariners ,who visit the coasts of the Frozen Ocean for the capture of the morsh. In the forests of Great Tartary, Muscovy, and Lithuania, bears arc sometimes found of a white colour • but though they resemble the polar bear in that single particular, they are in every other respect completely different. The colour of these animala does not depend, like that of the hair, or ermine, on the rigour of the climate ; and they might therefore be regarded as a fourth species, did not the intermixture of brown and white, to be seen in some bears, which are plainly an intermediate race between the white land bear and the brown or black, indicate that the former is only a variety of one of those species.
The brown bear is a fierce carnivorous animal, so extremely voracious, that he not only attacks flocks and herds, ho even devours carcases when in a pu trid state. The black bear, on the contrary, can never be brought to taste of flesh, nor has he ever been known to attack any animal for the sake of devouring it. Roots and vegetables of every kind constitute his principal food ; but his favourite re past is honey and milk, of which the brown bear likewise is excessively fund. The black bear is very rare in Europe, but is extremely common in the fo rests of America. The brown bear is to be found in almost every latitude of Europe, in China, Japan, Arabia, Egypt, and as far as the island of Java.
The form of the bear is rude and unshapely. His unwieldy body is covered with a coarse and shaggy hide ; his legs are thick and muscular ; and the long flat soles of his paws, though they enable him to tread with peculiar firmness, render his pace, at the same time, very awkward and heavy. Yet though thus unseemly in his appearance, his senses are ex tremely acute, and his form combines many advan tages which few other animals enjoy. Though his eye is small, and his ear short, in proportion to his size, he possesses in great perfection the senses of hearing and seeing. In no animal is the sense of smelling so exquisite ; for the internal surface of his nose is not only very extensive, but of the tex ture best calculated to receive impressions from odo riferous bodies. His feet, aryned with sharp claws, and capable of grasping, somewhat in the manner of a hand, enable him to climb with great facility the most lofty trees : With his fore paws he can strike a dreadful blow ; he can rear himself at pleasure on his hinder paws, and, seizing his adversary in his embrace, can easily squeeze the strongest man to death. The bear delights in solitude, and chooses his den in the pre cipices of lonely mountains, or in the deep recesses of some gloomy forest. Here he passes the greater part of the winter, without ever stirring abroad. He is not deprived of sensation, like the dormouse or marmot ; nor has he, like the ant or the bee, laid up any hoard of provisions for the season. But being excessively fat when he retires in autumn, he seems to subsist chiefly on his own exuberance ; the under part of his paws, too, is composed of glands, which are at that time full of a white milky juice, and during his retirement he is said to derive considerable nourishment front sucking them. ',When he first' crawls abroad again in spring, he is extremely lean and feeble, and his feet are so tender that he moves with difficulty. These animals copulate in autumn ; the period of gestation is about four months ; and only one or two are produced at a birth. It was long believed that the cub, when first brought forth, was a mere un formed lump, until it was licked into shape by the dam ; but the truth is, that the foetus of the bear is as completely formed before parturition as that of any other animal. The young bear is very slow of growth, and follows the dam for at least a year ; du ring all which time she displays uncommon tender ness for her offspring, and will encounter any danger in its defence.