THE COATI-MONDI AND ITS COUSINS. 139 



In the same manner, though not to the same extent, the nose of the 

 Nasua, like the same organ of the elephant, projects far beyond the 

 mouth. At our first acquaintance with the animal, we were anxious 

 to see if it could drink out of a deep, narrow vessel. So a mug, con- 

 taining about a gill of milk, was set before her. She instantly turned 

 up the proboscis toward her forehead, and, in the easiest way imagina- 

 ble, lapped the vessel dry. The organ was not even wet. The sight, 

 though comical, was really pretty. It was the only time that I had 

 ever seen the turning up of the nose at one's friends so deftly and 

 gracefully done. And she could turn the same organ in a contrary 

 way quite as easily. The first time she confronted a mirror, startled 

 at beholding her own counterfeit presentment, instantly her counte- 

 nance fell very low indeed ; for her nose bent downward, and act- 

 ually curved under the chin. Of course the word chin is not here 

 anatomically correct. Her proboscis now looked like that of a tapir 

 in repose. This singular grimace, with its squeaky little grunts, pre- 

 sented a very funny manifestation of surprise. 



Fig. 3. 



Raccoon (Proeyon lotor). A near allv of the Coati-Mondi, having the same plantigrade, or bear-like step, 

 and certain other resemblances of for .n and habit. The tail is too short in the cut, which is due to 

 the foreshortening. 



Sometimes for an airing the animal was tied by a long tether to a 

 flower-stand on the lawn. It should have been mentioned that she 

 was literally omnivorous. She would catch a mouse and eat it all up. 

 The heads of poultry given her in the kitchen would be eaten raven- 

 ously. The same is true of sweetmeats, which she occasionally got by 

 stealth. She would drink every thing, not even stopping at brandy. 

 She had nearly all the appetencies of the domestic swine ; and the end 

 of her proboscis was essentially a swine's snout. I now beheld the 

 use of this singularly-tipped organ. And an interesting sight it was 

 to see that little thing plough up the greensward with the tip of her 

 nose and so easily. Here appeared the veritable swinish acuteness 

 of scent for insects and worms, and the swinish facility for rooting in 

 the ground. With surprising rapidity furrow after furrow was made, 

 of about the width of a man's thumb. "Whenever a worm or insect 

 was discovered, as when drinking, the nose was curved up, so that the 

 mouth could extract the object from the furrow. 



