NIGHT HUNTING. 19 



kept for the up-growing practical sportsmen, in 

 which direction the present volume is a Ion"; 

 and definite step. 



Our task is to offer guidance and advice as 

 to the dogs. Yet to do this clearly, the reader 

 must know something of the nature and habits 

 of the animals to be hunted and the effort in- 

 volved. 



A southern gentleman of experience and 

 training has the following to say about -coon 

 hunting : 



The 'coon is a wily little animal, and his 

 liabits are very interesting to note. He is a 

 veritable trickster, compared with which the 

 proverbial cunning fox must take a back seat. 

 One of the 'coon's most common tricks employed 

 to fool the hound is known among hunters as 

 ''tapping the tree," and Avhich he accomplishes 

 in this way : When he hears the hound's first 

 note baying on trail, he climbs up a large tree, 

 runs to the furthest extremity of one of the 

 largest branches and doubling himself up into a 

 ball, leaps as far as possible out from the tree. 

 This he repeats several times on different trees, 

 then makes a long run, only to go thru the same 

 performances in another place. Onward comes 

 the hound, till he reaches the first tree the 'coon 

 went up, and if it is a young and inexperienced 

 liound, he will give the ''tree bark" until the 



