174 



VEUTEBRATA. 



•' Coon. — Captain John Scott? 



* Hunter. — The sumo. 



•• Coon. — Well, well, don't fire; its no use. I'll come down directly." 



The raccoon is about twenty-six indies long; the tail eight inches; the weight twenty to 

 twenty-five pounds. The head is rather round, the nose sharp and flexible, and the expression of 

 the face cunning, slv, and foxy. The feet are plantigrade, and hence the animal was con- 

 sidered by some early naturalists as a small hear. The general color of the fur is blackish gray, 

 but paler on the under part of the body ; the point of the nose and soles of the feet black, and the 

 yes black. Around the lace is a circle of yellowish-white hair. The tail is marked with five or 

 six black rings, and is tipped with black. The body is stout, the back arched upward, the legs 

 rather lone,-, and the claws strong. 



The favorite haunts <>t' the raccoon are solitary forests upon marshy grounds, intersected by 

 streams. His food consists of birds' eggs, the eggs of the soft-shelled turtle, frogs, mussels, and 

 various other small animals. Along the coast in the Southern States, he finds a species of oyster 





THE RACCOON. 



in which he delights : though we are told that he sometimes pays dear for the whistle, as he get* 

 his paw caught by a fixed shell, and, unable to escape, he is drowned by the returning tide. 

 Sometimes he creeps silently in the sedges like a cat, snapping up a duck that comes within bis 

 reach. He climbs trees with ease, and not unfrequently robs the nests of the woodpecker, b) 

 putting his Jong paws into the holes which this bird has chiseled in the limb of a dry tree. 

 Winn the com is in the milk, he steals at night into the fields and feasts himself to satiety, 

 ieckle<s of the damage done to the crop, and the ire of the planter when he discovers the theft. 

 His conical head and sharp, flexible nose are not made in vain, for these enable him to pry into 

 corners and crevices for spiders, worms, and the larvae of various insects, of which he is very 

 fond. 



Thus the ra >0U is an animal of large resources and marked character. He goes prowling 



about as well by night as by day. He is a fisher, a hunter, a trapper, a reaper, or a fly-catcher, 

 as occasion may require, lie i> instinctively cunning as the fox, inquisitive and meddlesome a 

 the monkey, greedy as a bear, sly as a cat. In northern climates, on the approach of winter,* 

 he retires to his home and sleeps like the bear till spring, or only goes abroad occasionally in fair 



reather. At the South, he is active during the year. His nest is usually made in the hollow 

 trunk of a tree. From four to six young ones are produced at a birth, this event taking place in 



May. The young coons are half as big as a rat, and utter a plaintive wail like an infant. 



