280 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. 



broad daylight, as well as by the light of the 

 harvest moon. I question whether it ever hap- 

 pens, for the 'coon is not only too quick-witted 

 but too nimble to be caught in a trap acting so 

 slowly as that. 



He is as clever as a monkey with his front paws 

 and with the hind ones, too, for that matter. 

 A palmist would find, curiously enough, the same 

 arrangement of " lines " and " mounts " in his palm 

 as in those of a cat or a weasel, and would deduce 

 similarity of acumen and behavior to those animals 

 and be more nearly right than palmists usually 

 are. These palms seem to be extremely sensitive, 

 and by them he is able to distinguish objects very 

 nicely. The fore feet, in fact, are never still, but 

 are everlastingly moving in examination of what- 

 ever is within reach ; and to see one sit up with 

 his back against a log, holding something to eat 

 between his hind feet, and daintily picking away 

 and handing morsels to his mouth with his paws, 

 is irresistibly comic. An egg is thus managed 

 without wasting a drop, the teeth breaking a small 

 opening in one end, and the tongue lapping up the 

 contents while the shell is held firmly in the feet. 



Raccoons are fond of many kinds of fruit and ber- 

 ries. Dr. C. C. Abbot puts into his " Upland and 

 Meadow " a pleasant note of experience on this point. 



"There in a small gum-tree, largely overgrown 

 by a fox-grapevine, sat a small raccoon . . . and 

 simply stared without winking as I approached. 



