Supplements to the History: On the Bear 140

In the *History of Digitate Quadrupeds*, it was explained that, according to the opinions of some, a bear’s offspring is born from the womb as a formless mass, which the mother then supposedly shapes with her tongue. Nevertheless, an anatomical inspection of a slaughtered pregnant bear has shown the exact opposite; indeed, a small cub was found within the womb with its limbs already distinct, in the very form seen in the following illustration. This makes it clear that many opinions based primarily on hearsay are false—such as the belief that beavers castrate themselves, the myths concerning the birth of vipers, and likewise this claim of the bear's unformed offspring. Within the womb, the bear's fetus is not an imperfect lump lacking the definition of limbs that must be completed and distinguished by the mother's tongue after birth; rather, an autopsy demonstrates the total opposite. Consequently, Pliny, who falsely promoted this opinion, must be corrected.

A bear cub removed from the womb of its slaughtered mother.

We likewise present here an illustration of a bear's claw, which resembles those stones unearthed from the bowels of the earth called *rhincolithos* by the Greeks, as it mimics the beak of a bird of prey.

The claw of an adult bear.