1016 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



Jaeger, of Edmonton, Aha., I was courteously furnished with 

 particulars: A Raccoon, the first ever heard of in the district, 

 was taken by an Indian about 1903, on Red Deer River, at a 

 point some 75 miles south of Edmonton. 



Another, also captured by an Indian, was secured at a 

 place 40 miles south of Edmonton, in February, 1905. The 

 skins were brought in for sale to Thomas Hourston's store at 

 Edmonton. 



C. C. Chipman, the Hudson's Bay Company Commissioner 

 at Winnipeg, writes me on December 3, 1906: "There was i 

 Raccoon killed in the Peace River Country about fifteen years 

 ago and they did not know what it was. I never heard of any 

 having been killed at Lake Winnipeg or Lake Manitoba." 



William Mclnnes, of the Geological Survey of Canada, 

 examined the skin of one killed at Attawapiskat Lake (Lat. 52° 

 20', Long. 87° W.) in the winter of 1893. 



These various records are spotted on the map. When 

 extra-limital occurrences multiply, it is usually proof that the 

 species is extending its range. 



INDIVID- We have little light on the individual range, but it seems 



RANGE much wider than might be expected from such a slow-footed 

 creature. Bailey speaks^ of Coons in Texas going regularly 

 half-a-mile to a mile from their dens to their hunting grounds, 

 and, of course, back before dawn. Bachman tells'^ of following 

 a pair through the snow, and they made a journey of about a 

 mile, ending where they began. W. S. Williams, of Panther 

 Creek, N. C, informs me that a pet Coon he had, escaped, and 

 within a couple of days was killed while raiding a hen-roost 

 5 miles from home. Obviously this one had no home. 



ENVIRON- This is a creature of woodland edges, preferably hard- 

 wood; dense coniferous forests do not please it, one reason 

 being that hollow trees are essential to its well-being. It does 

 occasionally lodge in rocky crannies, even in bank burrows, 



* N. A. Fauna, No. 25, 1905, p. 193. 

 ' Quad. N. A., 1849, Vol. II, p. 81. 



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