The cubs¹ of bears when first born are shapeless masses of white flesh, a little larger than mice; their claws alone being prominent. The mother then licks them gradually into proper shape. Bears hibernate² during three or four months of the winter season. If they happen to have no den³, they construct a retreat with branches and shrubs⁴, which is made impenetrable to the rain and is lined with soft leaves. During the first fourteen days they are overcome by so deep a sleep, that they cannot be aroused even by wounds. They become wonderfully fat, too, while in this lethargic⁵ state. This fat is much used in medicine; and it is very useful in preventing the hair from falling off. At the end of these fourteen days they sit up, and find nourishment⁶ by sucking their fore⁷-paws. They warm their cubs, when cold, by pressing them to the breast, not unlike the way in which birds brood over their eggs. It is a very astonishing thing, but Theophrastus believes it that if we preserve the flesh of the bear, the animal being killed in its dormant⁸ state, it will increase in bulk, even though it may have been cooked. During this period no signs of food are to be found in the stomach of the animal, and only a very slight quantity of liquid; there are a few drops of blood only near the heart, but none whatever in any other part of the body. They leave their retreat in the 99 spring, the males being remarkably⁹ fat: of this circumstance, however, we cannot give any satisfactory explanation, for the sleep, during which they increase so much in bulk, lasts, as we have already stated, only fourteen days. When they come out, they sharpen the edges of their teeth against the young shoots of the trees. Their eye-sight is dull, for which reason they seek the combs of bees, in order that from the bees stinging them in the throat and drawing blood, the oppression in the head may be relieved.[107] The head of the bear is extremely weak, whereas, in the lion, it is

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