48 The Raccoon 



deep snow, to avoid which is his real reason for stay- 

 ing at home. I will give one fact that leads me to 

 form this conclusion. It is this: If an icy crust is 

 formed, the raccoon is ready to scurry about, no 

 matter how deep the snow or how long the winter. 

 The degree of hibernation of the raccoon and that of 

 the woodchuck bear no resemblance to each other; 

 for the woodchuck if taken from his burrow during 

 his long sleep is awakened with the greatest difficulty, 

 while the raccoon becomes "spry" with very little 

 urging. 



In the spring the raccoon is greatly reduced in 

 flesh, as John Burroughs says: "In March, that 

 brief summary of a bear, the raccoon comes out of 

 his den in the ledges and leaves his sharp digitigrade 

 track upon the snow, travelling not unfrequently in 

 pairs, a lean, hungry couple, bent on pillage and 

 plunder. They have an unenviable time of it, feast- 

 ing in summer and fall, hibernating in winter, and 

 starving in spring. In April I have found the young 

 of the previous year creeping about the fields, so 

 reduced by starvation as to be quite helpless, and 

 offering no resistance to my taking them up by the 

 tail and carrying them home." 



After hibernation the old raccoons are not, as a 

 rule, so much reduced in flesh as the younger ones, 



