114 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



an hundred dollar Mexican yellow- 

 headed parrot that died in a local 

 animal store while the 'coon was in my 

 possession, which parrot was sent out 

 to me to skeletonize. 



I was informed that this 'coon was 

 taken in a wild state in South Caro- 

 lina, or mavbe North Carolina, and in 

 any event nearly the whole half width 

 of the United States distant from 

 where any kind of these animals range 

 in nature — some parts of Texas, I be- 

 lieve, being the nearest locality for 

 them. Moreover, it may have been 

 brought up the coast from some place 

 in Mexico, on shipboard, and then es- 

 caped in the south after having been 

 landed in this country — for there are 

 Mexican species of it as we shall see 

 further on in this article. The in- 

 dividual now in my temporary keep- 

 ing proved to be a young female, and, 

 judging from what I subsequently 

 learned, hardly more than one half 

 grown. As- there are no good figures, 

 much less photographs of it, extant, I 

 was particularly desirous of succeeding 

 along this line with my camera — its 

 skeleton being something I hardly 

 hoped for, for description. When I 

 came to handle her, she was as cross as 

 .a crab, while on other occasions she was 

 extremely gentle and very teachable. 

 For four and a half hours on each of 

 two successive days I kept at this agile 

 .and wonderfully nervous little creature, 

 during which time I exposed no fewer 

 than fourteen eight-by-ten fast plates 

 on her in my study, in my efforts to 

 secure a completely satisfactory neg- 

 ative. Rather an expensive undertak- 

 ing. However, toward the close of the 

 second afternoon success commenced 

 to come my way as through patience, 

 gentleness and finesse on my part, and 

 a peculiar intelligence on the part of 

 the animal, I finally made two illus- 

 trations to the present account. 



This animal is undoubtedly related 

 to our common racoon (Procyon lotor), 

 but has a very much longer tail which 

 is banded black and white (see figure). 

 The markings of the face resemble 

 those of its larger congener, while its 

 under parts are buffy tan color, being 

 :somew r hat darker above. In action and 



behavior, generally, it is quite 'coon- 

 like. It is largely arboreal in nature, 

 quick and extremely active in habit, to 

 some extent nocturnal, and lives chiefly 

 on fruit, birds and various insects. In 

 the country homes in some parts of 

 Mexico, the species there found are 

 kept as pets, becoming very tame, and 

 are useful in destroying mice and other 

 vermin about the house. Often we 

 find four or five of them in the same 

 establishment. Few specimens of them 

 are in the collections of the United 

 States National Museum. 



A True Bird Story. 



by mrs. Caroline; bloomingdalE, from 

 john phin, paterson, n. j. 

 A few years ago while living in the 

 country, we had one chimney that was 

 never used in the summer time. A 

 chimney swallow built her nest in it. 

 One day while sitting in the room 1 

 heard something drop in the fireplace. 

 Removing the fireboard so that I could 

 look, I found that a nest had fallen 

 down. In it were three young birds, 

 too young to have feathers. One of 

 them seemed to be hurt. The nest was 

 broken. We found an empty robin's 

 nest into which we put the birds. I 

 then replaced the fireboard, leaving it 

 so I could watch them without being 

 seen. I wondered if the mother bird 

 would find them. So I waited and 

 watched with a great deal of interest 

 to see what would be done. But the 

 mother bird heard their cries when 

 she came with food for them and 

 so they were fed by the old birds. They 

 would bring water in their bills to 

 them. I spent a great many hours 

 watching them, sitting where they 

 could not see me. When they were 

 older one of the old birds, I do not 

 know which one, would talk to them 

 in their way, a few notes, and the little 

 ones would imitate them. Then the 

 next thing was to teach them how to 

 fly up the chimney. The old bird 

 would fly up a little way at a time. One 

 day the parent birds were gone a long 

 time for them and I was afraid they 

 had deserted the little ones, but late 

 in the day they returned and brought 

 something that was given to the one 



