Mammal Study 251 



foot of a brook fairy. However, the coon is no fairy ; it is a rather 

 heavy, logy animal and, like the bear and skunk, is plantigrade, walking 

 on the entire foot instead of on the toes, like a cat or dog. The hind foot 

 is long, with a well-marked heel, and five comparatively short toes, giv- 

 ing it a remarkable resemblance to a human foot. The front foot is 

 smaller and looks like a wide, little hand, with four long fingers and a 

 rather short thumb. The claws are strong and sharp. The soles 

 of the feet and the palms of the hands look as if they were covered 

 with black kid, while the feet above and the backs of the hands are 

 covered with short fur. Coon tracks are likely to be found during the 

 first thawing days of winter, along some stream or the borders of 

 swamps, often following the path made by cattle. The full-length track 

 is about 2 inches long; as the coon puts the hind foot in the track made by 

 the front foot on the same side, only the print of the hind feet is left, 

 showing plainly five toe prints and the heel. The tracks may vary 

 from one-half inch to one foot or more apart, depending on how 

 fast the animal is going; when it runs it goes on its toes, but when walking 

 sets the heel down ; the tracks are not in so straight a line as those made 

 by the cat. Sometimes it goes at a slow jump, when the prints of the 

 hind feet are paired, and between and behind them are the prints of the 

 two front feet. 



The coon is covered with long, rather coarse hair, so long as to almost 

 drag when the animal is walking; it really has two different kinds of 

 hair, the long, coarse, gray hair, blackened at the tips, covering the fine, 

 short, grayish or brownish under coat. The very handsome bushy tail is 

 ringed with black and gray. 



The raccoon feeds on almost anything eatable, except herbage. It has 

 a special predilection for corn in the milk stage and, in attaining this 

 sweet and toothsome luxury, it strips down the husks and often breaks 

 the plant, doing much damage. It is also fond of poultry and often raids 

 hen houses; it also destroys birds' nests and the young, thus damaging 

 the farmer by killing both domestic and wild birds. It is especially fond 

 of fish and is an adept at sitting on the shore and catching them with its 

 hands; it likes turtle eggs, crayfish and snakes; it haunts the bayous of 

 the Gulf Coast for the oysters which grow there; it is also a skillful frog 

 catcher. Although fond of animal diet, it is also fond of fruit, especially 

 of berries and wild grapes. 



It usually chooses for a nest a hollow tree or a cavern in a ledge near a 

 stream, because of its liking for water creatures; and also because of its 

 strange habit of washing its meat before eating it. I have watched a pet 

 coon performing this act; he would take a piece of meat in his hands, 

 dump it into the pan of drinking water and souse it up and down a few 

 times; then he would get into the pan with his splay feet and roll the meat 

 beneath and between them, meanwhile looking quite unconcernedly at his 

 surroundings, as if washing the meat were an act too mechanical to occupy 

 his mind. After the meat had become soaked until white and flabby, he 

 would take it in his hands and hang on to it with a tight grip while he 

 pulled off pieces with his teeth; or sometimes he would hold it with his 

 feet, and use hands as well as teeth in tearing it apart. The coon's teeth 

 are very much like those of the cat, having long, sharp tushes or canines, 

 and sharp, wedge-shaped grinding teeth, which cut as well as grind. 

 After eating, the pet coon always washed his feet by splashing them in 

 the pan. 



