and the Maritime Provinces. 81 



" It has always seemed to me," said the Judge, " that the raccoon and 

 the bear are in some way related, they have so many habits in common." 



" You are right, Judge," I replied, " they are very nearly related, in 

 fact, both belong to the same family, the Ursidcc, which is characterized 

 by the plantigrade walk and usually naked soles. There are two well 

 marked sub-families, one, the true bears, the other, the smaller, long-tailed 

 species. The Ursince, or bears proper, are of large size, clumsy form, and 

 very short tail, and the Sub- Ursince are the small bears with long tails." 



" The raccoon, then, is simply a small-sized, long-tailed bear," said the 

 Judge. 



" That 's right," I replied ; " and they have many of the habits of their 

 larger relatives." 



" The raccoon is one of the most generally distributed of all our Carniv- 

 ore. It is a restless, mischievous animal, nocturnal in its habits. Its 

 food is as miscellaneous as that of the bear, consisting of animals, birds, 

 fishes, reptiles, shell-fish, insects, fruit, vegetables, and grain, particularly 

 Indian corn, when in the milk stage ; in fact, its incursions into the corn- 

 fields have rendered it an object of dislike to the farmer, who loses no 

 opportunity of killing it. It has a propensity of destroying much more 

 than it can eat: to which its visits to the cornfields, where it breaks down 

 the stalks in every direction, — to the poultry yard, where it destroys every 

 fowl it can reach, eating the head and leaving the mutilated body, — and 



that into July, in their mating season, they sometimes get into a pack of 

 four or five, and then fierce fighting often occurs between the males. 



" The bear is not often seen in the woods, for with his keen sight and 

 hearing he quickly discovers the approach of an enemy and is soon out of 

 danger. 



"The bear sheds its fur at about July, and then its skin is valueless 

 and it is not fairly good until November, but is in best condition from 

 March to June. They usually go to den, that is, the female does, in 

 November, where she remains until April, or later. 



" Some of the older males do not go to den at all. I have seen where 

 they have broken brush and made a bed under a spruce tree and laid all 

 winter, but I have never known a female to do this, as she generally 

 remains in her den until spring. 



" The bear's position in the den is always such that it can see out 

 of the entrance. Sometimes there are three or four in a den, but if there 

 is a gravid female among them, before she gives birth to her cubs she 

 always drives the others out, no matter how much snow there is on the 

 ground. A peculiar trait of the bear is that it " back tracks " to its den, 

 thus endeavoring to elude pursuers. 



"The bears, although sleeping in their dens all winter, keep fat until 

 they come out in the spring, but they then very quickly become lean. 

 They then eat very little except a few ants which they get at by tearing 

 open old logs and stumps ; they later eat the buds as they swell. The 

 female has her young, one to three in number, in March, although they 

 are sometimes born in February." 



