12 XOHTH AAIKIUCAX FAUNA 60, FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



The impiilso to follow which sooms to be inhcicnt in young animals 

 of man}' kinds was noted i)_y Cole, who says: 



After learning to walk, tlie raccoons would all follow me, or anyone else, with 

 the utmost eagerness. If I ran they struggled through the grass at their best 

 rate, giving the instinctive cry more and more shrilly as I got further away from 

 them, and ceasing to giv'e it when they overtook me. In the middle of the 

 seventh month this instinct to follow began to wane. When released from their 

 place of confinement each one tended to go on an exploring tour of his own and 

 to make for a nearby tree. At this time they would still follow if called. A 

 month later no one of the four would follow at all, and their period of infancy 

 was past. 



Although Cole regards the raccoon as especially good-natured, 

 "... yet anger or ferocity was observed in these animals at about 

 the twelfth week of their age. Though scrupulous care was taken to 

 keep the animals tame they became fierce if they were left without 

 being handled for a few days. In the fighting attitude the ears are 

 laid back, the head lowered and the posterior portion of the body 

 sharply humiped up. Growling and unfleshing the teeth accompany 

 this fighting attitude and, wdien provoked the raccoon is an ugly 

 fighter." He found that his raccoons showed fear by starting at 

 sounds, and the sudden darkening of the room caused by the door 

 blowing shut produced in young animals a panic for a moment. 

 Indifference to each other's behavior was marked. No certain 

 evidence of the sexual instinct was noted by Cole until the twelfth 

 month. 



In regard to the practice of washing food that caused Linnaeus to 

 apply the name lotor, and the Germans Waschbdr, Cole says: "My 

 raccoons did not always dip their food in water. No doubt this was 

 partly due to their being fed together so that they formed the habit 

 of eating rapidly. . . . Nevertheless, I do not believe that the 

 raccoon in his native state will carry food very far for the purpose of 

 'washing it'." Whitney (1931, p. 35) comments on this point as 

 follows: "Unquestionably the most common error into which writers, 

 have fallen in regard to the habits of raccoons is that the raccoon 

 washes most of the food that he eats ... in the wild state the 

 raccoon washes almost nothing that he eats." He regards the error 

 as due to observations made on animals in confinement. It is obvious 

 that the washing of many kinds of food taken by raccoons, especially 

 at a distance from water, would be impracticable. It is probable that 

 under natural conditions raccoons w^ash only shellfish and other food 

 gathered in or about water, the washing being often necessary to 

 remove sand or other gritty matter. 



Concerning the sleep of raccoons. Cole writes: 



There are two rather characteristic positions in sleeping. In one the animal 

 lies on his back with his forepaws placed over his eyes. A young raccoon, when 



