220 THE RACOOX. 



Xo animal, not even excepting the wild cat, will 

 fight harder or Cjiiicker than a racoon; and I have 

 seen thrice, in one afternoon, three female 'coons in 

 quick succession 'whip,' to use a Yankeeism, thi'ee 

 large bear-dogs. 



AMien at Virginia Point, on the mainland, and seven 

 miles distant from the city of G-alveston on the island 

 of that name, I mounted mv pony one afternoon to 

 drive the chap'paval which borders Galveston West 

 Bay, intending to shoot wh?tever turned up, from a 

 deer to a flapper of the dusky duck {Anas ohscura), 

 which breeds in Texas. When a couple of miles from 

 home, I turned the dogs into the chapparal. In a few 

 minutes I heard a tremendous row, and upon riding in 

 I found them engaged in a fierce fight with a racoon. 

 The struo'crle lasted more than half-an-hour, and half- 

 a-dozen times I thought the life had been bitten or 

 shaken out of the varonint, but after lying to all 

 appearances lifeless for a minute or two, whilst the 

 dogs stood panting around, the vixen would suddenly 

 get on her legs and attack the dogs like a fury. As 

 soon as I could, I shot the racoon, to put her out of her 

 misery, and in a few moments afterwards one of the 

 dogs routed out of a tussock of grass five young 'coons 

 only a day or two old. 



Three hundred yards beyond the spot where this 

 encounter happened, another vixen was found, and 

 another fight occurred very similar to the first, and 



