THE SENSES AND INSTINCTS OF THE RACCOON 301 



of corn, even when dry and hard, if they were hungry. Bread 

 made of either corn-meal or flour was readily accepted. It 

 seems evident, therefore that the raccoon in his native haunts 

 lives upon forest fruits and buds, and upon flies, beetles, min- 

 nows, etc. 



Brehm 2 says, " In respect to his food the raccoon is a true 

 bear. He consumes everything that is eatable, but seems to 

 be a real epicure who prides himself on picking out the best 

 morsels, if only it is possible. The most different kinds of fruits, 

 as chestnuts, wild grapes, maize, so long as the ears are not 

 hard; fruits of every kind furnish valuable means of nourish- 

 ment; but he tries to catch birds and their broods, knows how 

 to steal upon a chicken or a dove, catches nimble fish, crabs 

 and testaceous animals, and ventures at ebb-tide, for the love 

 of such feasts, far out into the water. Especially does he like 

 to eat oysters and understands how to open them skilfully." 



Smell: So far as I could observe the raccoons did not often 

 employ the sense of sme|l, though this may have been due to 

 their captive condition. In no case did they seem to find pieces 

 of meat on the floor by means of smell. If one of them saw a 

 small piece of meat dropped in the hay on the floor he would 

 search for it carefully but beyond a distance of a few inches 

 he did not seem to smell it. They found small pieces of loaf 

 sugar on the floor quite as promptly as they did meat, yet from 

 the standpoint of the human sense of smell sugar has no odor. 



In one case smell was evident. When the animals were to 

 be fed the basin of food was usually placed on the step while 

 the door was being unlocked. During this time all of the rac- 

 coons sniffed noisily at the crack beneath the door. When it 

 was opened, however, they looked for the food basin. So in 

 this case smell was evident only when sight could not be used. 



On receiving the fifth raccoon, which was very young, I 

 placed it on the floor of the room in which the older animals 

 were kept. They showed both fear and curiosity in regard to 

 it. After a time they came within two feet of it, stretching 

 their muzzles toward it with slight sniffing. Finally they touched 

 its fur with their noses. The males then took no further notice 

 of the young animal but the female touched it with her nose 

 many times during the following half-hour. 



2 Brehm, A. E. Thierleben, Erster Band, Leipzig, 1875. 



