PROCYON AND ITS HABITS 



natured and sportive, but as unlucky as a monkey." 

 He furthermore described it as very inquisitive, and 

 alleges that it will, if the opportunity arise, " like Roger 

 the monk, get excessively drank." The American 

 Aubudon, with his colleague Bachman, called it 

 " cunnning, easily tamed, and makes a pleasant monkey- 

 like pet." It is indeed a very Paul Pry among non-human 

 mammals. This renders it not so desirable as a pet ; 

 for it will uncork bottles, open doors, and generally put 

 its nose and fingers where they should not be. In a state 

 of nature the Procyon is " sly, dey-vilish sly." The 

 beast watches, we are told, the turtle when about to 

 deposit her eggs, and " sometimes by the margin of a pond 

 or crouched among tall reeds and grasses, grimalkin- 

 like, the raccoon lies still as death waiting with patience 

 for some ill-fated duck that may come within its reach." 

 All or nearly all is fish that comes to the raccoon's net. 

 Poultry, mice, eggs, insects and fruit form the staple of 

 its diet ; and it will turn over stones in its search for 

 crayfish. The southern species is so called on this very 

 account. " The habits of the muscles (sic) that inhabit 

 our freshwater rivers are better known to the raccoon 

 than to most conchologists," wrote Audubon and 

 Bachman. And there are legends to the effect that in 

 its quest of oysters, the raccoon sometimes gets a paw 

 shut in the shell of the angry mollusc, and thus fast 

 trapped is drowned by the rising tide. This, however, is 

 a tale which has been naturally viewed with suspicion. 

 It is clear, notwithstanding, that the raccoon is very 

 universal in its choice of food, a circumstance 

 which is always to the advantage of an animal 

 with so wide a taste. Omnivorousness is also writ large 

 upon its teeth, the molars being wide crowned and 

 tubercular, not thin and with cutting edges as in the 

 purely carnivorous cat tribe. It seems to be generally 

 believed that the raccoon handles and washes its food 



