26 ANIMALS OP NORTH AMERICA. 



this. From its fondness for water it is usually found in low 

 wooded swamps, making its lair in some hollow tree. It is 

 nocturnal, restless, and mischievous in its habits, feeding on 

 wild and domesticated fowls, frogs, lizards, fish, and insects. 

 The tail of the Racoon is never affected by even the coldest 

 weather ; hence, it never gnaws it, as other animals of its 

 species are known to do, especially the Coati of South 

 America, of which the most marvellous accounts have been 

 given, that it devours its own tail. This however has doubt- 

 less arisen from the extreme length of that appendage, in 

 which the blood circulates feebly, thus exposing it to the 

 slightest influence of cold or frost ; the irritation thereby 

 produced, leading the animal to gnaw and scratch its extremity 

 to allay that irritation, till it not unfrequently falls a victim to 

 spinal disease produced by this expedient. The Racoon is 

 easily susceptible of domestication ; one formerly in possession 

 of the writer being as tame as a cat, and sitting up on its 

 haunches to receive its food in its forepaws before devouring 

 it, and being remarkably cleanly in its habits. Occasionally 

 it commits great depredations among the fields of Indian corn 

 while in the milky state ; and this, together with its occasional 

 descents upon the barnyard, scarcely compensates the farmer 

 for its zeal in digging up and devouring grubs or the larvae 

 of injurious insects. 



THE AMERICAN BADGER (Meles Labradoria) has only 

 recently been ascertained to be a distinct species from the 

 European ; it was formerly looked upon as a new variety, till 

 the .publication of Sabine's Appendix to Long's Expedition. 



Description. Color hoary with a white stripe down the 

 forehead, body robust, long on the legs ; ears short and wide. 

 The old stories of the life of the Badger being gloomy and 

 wretched from its underground habits, are ridiculous, for 

 Nature evidently destined it for a subterranean and solitary 

 life. It is entirely inoffensive, and being like the racoon, 

 nocturnal, little is accurately known respecting it. The 



