308 LAWRENCE W. COLE 



humped up. Growling and unfleshing the teeth accompany this 

 fighting attitude and, when provoked the raccoon is an ugly 

 fighter. Intense anger and fear both act as purgatives. 



Curiosity: All observers credit the raccoon with the posses- 

 sion of curiosity and he is likened to the monkey in this respect. 

 The behavior which indicates curiosity is, however, associated 

 chiefly with the sense of touch. The animals continually employ 

 this sense in investigating the floor and all objects about them. 

 Especially dark places, as your pocket, a knothole or a crevice, 

 are explored by touch hundreds of times. It is no acquired 

 trick that the raccoon puts his paw in your pocket, but a deeply 

 rooted instinct. Even when hungry a raccoon which knows 

 perfectly how to get food by operating some mechanism will 

 stop work for a time in order to thrust his paw in your pocket 

 or deep under your coat. Without exception they all carefully 

 explored the bottom of the basin whenever fresh water was 

 brought to them. 



It may be that in nature they secure food by exploring dark 

 crevices by touch but as my animals never obtained food in 

 this way we should expect the impulse to have passed away 

 unless it were genuine curiosity of a "disinterested" type. 



A part of Beckmann's account of this behavior may be quoted, 

 "Among the conspicuous peculiarities of the raccoon must be 

 reckoned his boundless curiosity, * * * and his propensity 

 for rummaging every nook and corner. * * * If he can get 

 to a wall of masonry he scratches the mortar out of the joints 

 with his sharp claws and causes incredible devastation in a 

 short time. Like Jeremiah at the ruins of Jerusalem, he then 

 sits down in the midst of his heaps of rubbish, looks sadly about 

 him, and exhausted by his hard work, lifts his collar with his 

 forepaws." 



Sympathy: (?) These animals pay almost no attention to 

 one another. Though one raccoon is retreating from you, 

 growling and snapping, the others are in nowise disturbed. 

 Their indifference to each other's behavior could hardly be 

 more marked, and this fact must be taken account of in con- 

 sidering the question of imitation. 



Dipping Their Food in Water: This peculiar instinct gives 

 the raccoon two names. The Germans call him the " Waschbar," 

 while science entitles him " Procyon lotor." Yet my raccoons 



