36 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



"Their silvery skin is very beautiful, & generally es- 

 teemed. These animals live only on small birds when they 

 catch any; but if that hunt is not successful, they have 

 recourse to oysters and other shell fish which they eat. 

 For that they wait until the tide is quite low & that the 

 oyster opens its shell either to take the air or to receive 

 a fresh supply of sea water; then they put their paw in 

 the shell, then the muzzle, & they eat the oyster. It is 

 true that sometimes they are not successful, & the oyster, 

 happening to close suddenly, imprisons between its shells 

 the paw of the chat [raccoon], in which case the animal 

 is patient & docile, & is obliged to wait three hours for the 

 change in the tide. The flesh of these chats is neither bad 

 nor unhealthful." It is quite probable that Dumont is the 

 originator of this pleasant little fiction that has persisted 

 even to this day in certain circles. 



Like Le Page du Pratz, the opossum and its habits at- 

 tracted Dumont and he gave considerable space to this 

 lowly fur animal of the Louisiana swamps. Like du Pratz, 

 whose description of the Rat du Bois will be found in its 

 entirety in the chapter devoted to the opossum, Dumont 

 was very much interested in the marsupial's method of 

 reproduction and it will be noted that he was, practically 

 biologically correct in stating how the young were born. 



"That (the flesh) of the rat sauvage (opossum) is much 

 better; they are eaten and they taste like cochons de lait 

 (suckling pigs). These rats are much larger than those in 

 France; they are very hideous to the sight, & their skin 

 seems always covered with mud. Their long snout is 

 adorned with two great mustaches on either side ; there is 

 practically no hair on their ears, & their tail, which has 

 none at all, is marked like those files which are called 

 queue de rat (rat tails.) Moreover, this animal is so slow 

 that it is easily caught. It is very fond of birds & poul- 

 try ; hence it boldly enters the barn-yards and hen-houses ; 

 it even goes into the fields to the corn which has been sown 

 there. 



"The instinct with which it hunts is very curious. 

 After having caught a small bird and killed it, it is very 



