Raccoon 1025 



This Mosaic habit seems to have arisen from its fashion of 

 groping with busy nervous fingers in the mud for frogs, fish, 

 or insects. Then, having secured some wrigghng prey, its 

 first care, before eating, is to clear it of sand and clay, by dab- 

 bling it in the open water. Taking advantage of this, many 

 trappers catch Coons by setting in the mud on some favourite 

 frogging point. I shall never forget the sensation I had in my 

 early days when, one morning, on going to a trap set for 

 Muskrat I found, firmly held in it by one paw, a huge and 

 savage-looking Raccoon. 



If necessary to reach some desirable food or to escape swim- 

 from an undesirable caller, the Coon will swim fearlessly and 

 well, but ordinarily is not fond of water in which it cannot 

 comfortably wade. 



As a runner it takes low rank. I never saw but one run- run- 

 ning before the hounds in daylight, and its speed seemed 

 barely half of theirs. Moreover, in many nights cooning, I 

 never knew one of these animals to run more than a quarter 

 of a mile before treeing. 



It is a desperate fighter. I have seen one beat off^ two fight- 

 large hounds, each of which was over double his weight, and 

 saw another defeat three dogs — a terrier and two hounds. A 

 Bedlington terrier, a famous fighting dog in Toronto, was said 

 to have reached the final pitch of war-glory when, single- 

 handed, he killed a full-grown Coon whose weight was about 

 the same as his own. 



The old Raccoon is sullen, dangerous, and untameable if as pets 

 kept captive, but the young, if taken at an early age — that is, 

 before they have begun to hunt for themselves — make, as 

 Merriam says," "intelligent and interesting pets; being easily 

 tamed and evincing considerable afi^ection for their master. 



"But they cannot be allowed their liberty like tame 

 Skunks, because of their innate propensity for mischief. If 



" Mam. Adir., 1884, p. 93. 



