The wonder book of freaks and animals in the Barnum & Bailey greatest show on earth : 1898.

Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The wonder book of freaks and animals in the Barnum & Bailey greatest show on earth : 1898. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    THE OMNIVOROUS BEARS. (Copyright^ Registered.) There is no other animal which in its natural state is distributed over such a wide area of the earth as the bear. It is indigenous to all climates and countries, but the finest representatives of the bear family are found in North America. The largest and fiercest of the American bears is the grizzly, native to the Rocky Mountains and now almost extinct. The more common American species is the black bear, between whom and the grizzly stands the silver-tip, but naturalists do not all agree that the silver tip is a distinct species. The fine den of bears in the Barnum and Bailey collection, like all bear-kind, are very fond of sweets, and tease passers-by for toothsome bits. The bear is a great treeclimber,andhe candeliver a powerful squeeze with his fore-legs, which he uses for hugging as well as for striking. The bear's foot is very different from that of either the cat or dog tribes. The latter two walk on the tips of their toes, but the bear plants his whole long foot firmly on the ground. A writer in the Saturday Review recently wrote as follows on the interesting habits of the Barnum and Bailey bears ;— As for the American black bears, they are treated to all manner of luxuries : a little meat, a little ( fish, bread unlimited, with dessert to follow, and candles (greatly appreciated) by way of savoury. In this varied diet there is nothing surprising, for we know, from the writings of those who have studied it at home, that the natural food of the American black bear embraces fruit in summer, with as much wild honey as he can procure, while in winter, when not torpid, he feeds on cattle, pigs, and fish. In June, according to a recent writer, he consumes, in Florida at any rate, quantities of turtles' eggs ; and lastly it will be remembered that it was this species of bear that Darwin referred to as swimming open-mouthed and catching insects in true whale fashion. So that after all the diet provided for it by its keepers at ' The Greatest Show' is comparatively monotonous. These bears will, I am told, drink beer or whisky from a bottle, and the superintendent even talks, in his retrospective moments, of a bear of his which on one occasion ' sulked' in a tree, deftly caught an uncorked bottle of whisky that was thrown up to it, drained the contents, fell off the tree and hurt its ribs, and could never again be persuaded to drink.