1028 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



TR.\p- 'Cute as a Coon,' is an old adage that is supposed to refer 



to the fox-Hke cunning of the old Raccoon. My own experience 

 does not bear this out. I have caught several in very obvious 

 traps that a Fox would have scoffed at. Merriam says of a 

 treed Coon:*^ "If the tree is too large to be easily felled, a 

 trap set at its foot and baited with a bit of codfish or an ear 

 of corn, is pretty sure to secure him before the next morning." 



I have several times heard of a trick by which hunters 

 secure a Coon that has gone up a tree too large to be cut down 

 and too dense of leafage to be searched out with torch and 

 keenest eyes. If straw is handy, they make a band of it and tie 

 it around the tree as high up as they can reach. Over this the 

 Coon will not come; so, next morning, the hunter returns with 

 rifle and picks him off out of the topmost branches. When 

 no straw is at hand, a dummy made of surplus clothing is 

 sometimes left, and as effectually guards the prisoner. 



A Coon travelling through the woods always runs along 

 every fallen log that lies in the line of its travels. This fact is 

 often taken advantage of in trapping. Two sticks are crossed 

 in the middle of a log so that the creature must jump at that 

 place, and a trap is hidden at each side of the jump to make sure 

 of it coming or going. 



ENEMIES Man, no doubt, is its worst enemy, and yet the species 



seems to have increased in recent years; due partly, no doubt, 

 to the abundant food supply furnished by the settlers' crops, 

 and partly to the destruction of enemies that prey on the Coon. 

 The most formidable of these, perhaps, is the Fisher. 

 Reference to the article on this animal shows that the present 

 species increases in the northern region as the Fisher is ex- 

 terminated by the trapper. 



USES The roast Coon is the supposed proper finish of a Coon 



hunt. Young ones killed without a battle and properly 

 cooked are palatable, but a tough warrior male, to whom death 

 came in a long, desperate fight is not fit for human food. 



"Mam. Adir., 1S84, p. 94. 



