Raccoon 
Raccoons, like most other climbing animals, make frequent 
use of the nests of hawks and crows to sleep in. At other times 
they flatten themselves along the thick branch of a tree, their 
gray fur harmonizing admirably with the colour of the bark, or 
else they ascend to the tops of dense foliaged hemlocks and, 
circling their fat bodies completely around the main stem, doze 
away the time in comfort, supported by the numerous elastic 
branches about them, quite invisible from the ground. If a 
company of blue jays discover one in this position there is sure 
to be a tremendous racket right away, their shrill voices jarring 
the quiet of the tree-tops like an alarm clock set to awaken 
the coon from his slumbers. 
Compared with most of our flesh-eating beasts, raccoons 
are regular stay-at-homes. Of course there are exceptions, and 
undoubtedly many of them are possessed of the wandering habit, 
but | believe that the majority of them return regularly at day- 
break, however they may have passed the night, whether peace- 
fully gathering wild grapes or berries in the thickets, or robbing 
the farmer’s hen-roost. This last is perhaps about the worst form 
of vice in which they ever indulge. A coon at large in a hen- 
house appears to lose all discretion or fear of final retribution, 
killing right and left while his enthusiasm lasts, and then gorging 
himself on the results of his carnage. Unlike foxes, most of 
whom carefully avoid a second visit to any farmyard that they 
have once ravaged in this manner, a coon is likely to return the 
following night to go on with his horrid work, and in most 
instances is made to suffer the penalty of his misdeeds—a charac- 
teristic which would appear to indicate a certain dullness of 
intellect, at least as compared with that of the fox; for as long 
as the latter is able to quietly capture two or three chickens 
each week under cover of the corn, he seems to realize that 
there is but little danger of calling down the vengeance of the 
farmer upon his head, and may keep up the game for months; 
but wholesale robbery he knows to be a more serious matter, 
and hardly to be repeated with safety. 
The track of the raccoon is easily recognized either in soft earth 
or snow, the footprints being long with a narrow and quite 
distinct heel, almost like that of the human foot. They are com- 
monly in pairs a few inches apart, one a little in advance, the 
pairs separated by a distance of something less than a yard. 
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