I'ROCYON l.OTOR. 



Tribes are in the habit of clothing themselves with them; the fur or 

 hair inside, the smooth side without, which, however, they paint so 

 beautifully that, at a distance, it resembles lace. It is the opinion that 

 they make use of the best for that purpose; what has poor fur they 

 deem unsuitable for their clothing. When they bring their commodi- 

 ties to the Traders, and find they are desirous to buy them, they make 

 so very little matter of it, that they at once rip up the skins they are 

 clothed with and sell them as being the best." 



The nest of the Otter is generally placed under some shelving bank 

 or uprooted tree, and has been found in a hollow stub. The young 

 are commonly brought forth about the middle of April, and two (rare- 

 ly one or three) constitute a litter. Three Otters, the female with 

 her two young, are usually seen together during the summer and fall. 



Family PROCYONID/E. 



PROCYON LOTOR (Linn.) Storer. 

 Raccoon. 



Raccoons are common everywhere about the borders of the Adiron- 

 dacks, but they do not like dense evergreen forests and are therefore 

 rather rare in the interior; still, they are occasionally met with in all 

 parts of the Wilderness. 



They are omnivorous beasts and feed upon mice, young birds, 

 birds' eggs, turtles and their eggs, frogs, fish, cray-fish, mollusks, 

 insects, nuts, fruits, corn, and sometimes poultry. 



Excepting alone the bats and flying-squirrels, they are the most 

 strictly nocturnal of all our mammals, and yet I have several times 

 seen them abroad during cloudy days. They like to play in shallow 

 water, along the banks of ponds and streams, and find much of their 

 food in these places. They overturn stones and catch the cray-fish 

 that lurk beneath, and also gather the fresh-water mussels (Unio and 

 Anodoii] that live on sandy and muddy bottoms. They also catch 



* Translated in The Documentary Hist, of the State of New York, Vol. Ill, 1850, p. 36. 



