THE MISSISSIPPI RESERVES 289 



and minks, and therefore none of the sea-birds 

 which rest on the ground or in low bushes. 

 The coons are more common than the minks 

 and muskrats. In the inundations they are 

 continually being carried out to sea on logs; 

 a planter informed me that on one occasion in 

 a flood he met a log sailing down the swollen 

 Mississippi with no less than eleven coons 

 aboard. Sooner or later castaway coons land 

 on every considerable island off the coast, and 

 if there is fresh water, and even sometimes if 

 there is none, they thrive; and where there are 

 many coons, the gulls, terns, skimmers, and 

 other such birds have very little chance to 

 bring up their young. Coons are fond of ram- 

 bling along beaches; at low tide they devour 

 shell-fish; and they explore the grass tufts and 

 bushes, and eat nestlings, eggs, and even the 

 sitting birds. If on any island we found numer- 

 ous coon tracks there were usually few nesting 

 sea-fowl, save possibly on some isolated point. 

 The birds breed most plentifully in the number- 

 less smaller islands — some of considerable size 

 — where there is no water, and usually not a 

 tree. Some of these islands are nothing but 

 sand, with banks and ramparts of shells, while 

 others are fringed with marsh-grass and covered 

 with scrub mangrove. But the occasional fierce 



