1026 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



not closely watched, they will slyly enter the house through 

 some open door or window, and are liable to do considerable 

 damage, for their natural curiosity prompts them to examine 

 everything within reach, and anything out of reach of a 

 'Coon' must be inaccessible indeed. They invariably mani- 

 fest an insatiate desire to investigate the pantry shelves, 

 and rarely neglect to taste every edible thing that hap- 

 pens to be there. They have a special penchant for sweet- 

 meats, and greedily devour preserves, honey, molasses, 

 sugar, pies, and cakes; and even bread, butter, lard, milk, 

 etc., are by no means disregarded. They remove the cov- 

 ers from jars and pails, and uncork bottles with as much 

 ease and facility, apparently as if they had been instructed 

 in this art from earliest infancy. Doors that latch, as 

 they do in most old country houses, are soon opened, 

 even by unsophisticated Coons, and it takes them but a 

 short time to acquire the method of opening knob doors. 

 Their fore-paws are employed as hands, and can be put to 

 almost as great a variety of uses as those of the monkey — 

 which animal they further resemble in the propensity for 

 mischief-making." 



SANiTA- The species has progressed but little along the paths of 



TION 



sanitation. Its dung is dropped anywhere, at any time, ex- 

 cepting while in the nest. Like cow, horse, and Bear, the 

 Coon can void as it walks — is, in fact, a peripatetic defecator 

 — but, owing to conditions, this bovine habit is not accom- 

 panied by bovine, much less equine, success. 



Audubon and Bachman tell of a tame Coon that enjoyed 

 a bucket of water thus:'^ 



"After playing for a short time in the water it would 

 commonly urinate in it and then upset the pail." 



TRACKS The tracks are shown in Fig. 235; the pairing of the 



front feet when at full speed agrees with the tree-climbing 

 habit of the species. 



" Quad. N. A., 1849, Vol. II, p. 79. 



