512 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 

 Family URSID.S. 



Bears. 



PROCYON, Stor. 

 P. lotor, L. Raccoon. 



Slender, plantigrade, carnivorous ; with well-developed tail^ 

 with black rings ; snout elongated ; color grayish white ; hairs 

 black at tip. 



" Quite frequently met with in every county of the State, and 

 yet is nowhere so abundant as to be looked upon as an animal of 

 every-day occurrence. In the northern counties they are prob- 

 ably less numerous than in the southern, although more common 

 than about the central third of the State. In Mercer county 

 they are but little seen, and when found are generally met with 

 about the Assanpink, which traverses in part swampy, overgrown 

 land, such as * coons ' prefer. ' Coons,' when pursued, readily 

 take to trees, and, indeed, are seldom met with at any great dis- 

 tance from heavy timber. The young are brought forth in May, 

 from four to seven being in a litter. During the spring the 

 raccoon is a valuable beast, as it at this time of year eagerly 

 searches out and devours quantities of grubs, and by this destruc- 

 tion of the larvae of obnoxious insects largely compensates for 

 the corn eaten by them in August. When the water- courses are 

 strongly frozen up, and especially if there has much snow fallen, 

 raccoons will burrow under haystacks, and less frequently under 

 barns, living at such times in a great degree upon mice, and occa- 

 sionally attacking poultry. It is doubtful if at any time they 

 are so destructive as to warrant the persecution they seem doomed 

 to suifer." 



URSUS, L. 



U. americanus, Pal. Black Bear. Brown Bear. Cinnamon Bear. 



Color variable. 



" Fast disappearing from the State. Now never met with in 

 the central counties ; in inappreciable numbers in the northern 

 mountainous districts, and not more than half a dozen are 

 annually killed in the southern section of the State. The bear 

 has been the last of the three large carnivorous animals of the 



