THE RACOON 



215 



and also insects. They are useful for destroying 

 mice and rats, but are very destructive to poultry, and 

 are naturally bold, and will fight furiously with claws 

 and teeth. They prefer to inhabit woods traversed by 

 water-courses. Two more species of animals, also entirely 

 confined to the New World, are known as coati-mundis, 



FIG. 60. 



THE KINKAJOU. 



or coatis. One of these is confined to Mexico and Central 

 America, and the other to South America, from Surinam 

 to Paraguay. They are not so stoutly built as are the 

 racoons, and have longer and more slender and tapering 

 tails, but their main peculiarity consists in the possession 

 of a very elongated and mobile snout or short proboscis. 

 The coatis live mainly in trees, going about in troops of 

 from eight to twenty individuals. They are also, like 



