HISTORY AND HABITS OF THE PEKAN. 71 



infinitely more dangerous to their hounds than either the gray 

 or red fox. They usually called this species the Black Fox. 



*'A servant, on one occasion, came to us before daylight, ask- 

 ing us to shoot a raccoon for him, which, after having been 

 chased by his dogs the previous night, had taken to so large a 

 tree that he neither felt disposed to climb it nor to cut it down. 

 On our arrival at the place, it was already light, and the dogs 

 were barking furiously at the foot of the tree. We soon per- 

 ceived that instead of being a raccoon, the animal was a far 

 more rare and interesting species, a Fisher. As we were anx- 

 ious to study its habits we did not immediately shoot, but teased 

 it by shaking some grape vines that had crept up nearly to 

 the top of the tree. The animal not only became thoroughly 

 frightened, but seemed furious 5 he leaped from branch to 

 branch, showing his teeth and growling at the same time ; now 

 and then he ran half way down the trunk of the tree, elevating 

 his back in the manner of an angry cat, and we every moment 

 expected to see him leap off and fall among the dogs. He was 

 brought down after several discharges of the gun. He seemed 

 extremely tenacious of life, and was game to the last, holding 

 on to the nose of a dog with a dying grasp. This animal proved 

 to be a male; the body measured twenty-fiv^e inches, and the 

 tail, including the fur, fifteen. The servant who had traced him, 

 informed us that he appeared to have far less speed thdn a fox, 

 that he ran for ten minutes through a swamp in a straight 

 direction, and then took to a tree. . . . 



" Species that are decidedly nocturnal in their habits, fre- 

 quently may be seen moving about by day during the period 

 when they are engaged in providing for their young. Thus the 

 raccoon, the opossum, and all our hares, are constantly met 

 with in spring, and early summer, in the morning and after- 

 noon, whilst in autumn and winter they only move about by 

 night. In the many fox hunts, in which our neighbours were 

 from time to time engaged, not far from our residence at the 

 north, ... we never heard of their having encountered a single 

 Fisher in the daytime ; but when they traversed the same 

 grounds at night, in search of raccoons, it was not unusual for 

 them to discover and capture this species. We were informed 

 by trappers that they caught the Fisher in their traps only by 

 night. 



*' On several occasions we have seen the tracks of the Fisher 

 in the snow; they resemble those of the pine marten, but are 



