40 CARNIVORES. 



their eggs, frogs, fish, cray-fish, molluscs, insects, nuts and fruits and corn ; while 

 they will sometimes kill and eat domestic poultry. They delight to sport in the 

 shallow water on the margins of pools and streams, where they capture the cray- 

 fish lurking beneath the stones, and the fresh-water mussels buried in the mud 

 and sand. They also catch such fish as happen to get stranded or detained in the 

 small pools near the shore, although they are unable to dive in pursuit of their 



THE COMMON KACCOON (J liat. size). 



prey. They are, however, good swimmers. Although first-rate climbers, and 

 making their nests in a hollow high up in some large tree, raccoons cannot be 

 considered by any means thoroughly arboreal' animals. Thus they neither hunt 

 their prey among the tree-tops, nor gather nuts and fruits from the branches, nor 

 do they feed upon the young shoots and twigs. Trees form, however, their resting 

 and their breeding-places, and likewise their refuge when pursued by human or 

 other foes. With the falling shades of night they invariably descend to hunt their 

 prey and search for food. 



