92 BRITISH . CHAPTER III. Wild Animals—Birds— Keptiles—Insects—Fishes, &c. Of the quadrupeds of , it will be sufficient, for the purpose of general information, to notice the most remarkable. The bears of the American forest are of a jet black colour, and are extremely mischievous and annoying to the inhabitants of the remote settlements, destroy¬ ing black cattle, sheep, and hogs. During winter they retire to some sequestered part of the forest, and select a den, which they prepare by closing it nearly over with branches and sticks, and making a bed within it of moss. During three or four months they live in these dens without food, and, according to the accounts of the Indians and others who some¬ times discover them, in a state of torpor, from which, however, they are easily roused. It is said that a bear, on leaving his den, is nearly as fat as at any period of the year ; this is neither probable nor true. The vulgar but absurd belief is, that they live during winter by sucking their paws. Although bears are carnivorous animals, they feed indiscriminately on berries, or any thing in the shape of food. In summer they go prowling about, living