RACCOON 



Procyon lotor. 



This clever and enterprising animal, familiarly known as the 

 "coon" is found throughout the United States and in the western 

 part of our country, as far north as Alaska. Unlike many of our 

 wild creatures, its numbers are increasing even near thickly settled 

 localities and under apparently unfavorable conditions. In length 

 it measures about thirty inches, being thick-set in form and ordi- 

 narily clumsy and deliberate in movement. Its covering consists of 

 what we might term two coats ; next to the skin is a gray woolly 

 fur through which projects longer hairs of a mixed gray and black 

 color; these two layers together form such a thick protection that 

 it is necessary for the wearer to hibernate only during the most 

 extreme cold weather. The short, bushy tail is a grayish white, 



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