118 ZOOLOGY. 



Doctor Cooper, in his note, saj's that the badger has a strong "doggy" flavor, "not to men- 

 tion its extraordinary toughness and leanness." The Doctor must have been unfortunate in his 

 choice of a specimen to experiment upon. Those that I have seen are generally too fat, and 

 one that I ate, in company with some Nez Perces Indians, on the southern slope of the Blue 

 mountains of Oregon, I thought exceedingly good ; so good that I allowed the savage banquet 

 to replace my ordinary dinner. 



The skin of the specimen obtained in Washington Territory was unfortunately lost on its way 

 to the Smithsonian museum. As Professor Baird has examined skins from the west side of the 

 Rocky mountains, and pronounced the species of both sides to be identical, I feel at liberty 

 to give the range of the T. Americana in the northern sections of our country, as follows: 

 Found sparingl}' in the eastern portion of Minnesota; becoming more abundant near the 

 Missouri. From thence, after entering Nebraska, it extends almost all the way to the dividing 

 ridge of the Cascade mountains, near the Pacific coast. Further west it does not go, at least 

 north of the Columbia. I have seen it in the St. Mary's valley, at the western base of the 

 main chain of Rocky mountains, and as far south in Oregon as the vicinity of Fort Boise, on 

 the Snake or Lewis river. They are most abundant (north of Utah) in the vicinity of Powder 

 river, Oregon, and the Yakima, one of the northern tributaries of the Columbia. The speci- 

 men obtained in Minnesota was so fat that I had much difficulty in skinning it properly for 

 preservation. — S. 



PROCYON HERNANDEZII, W a g 1 e r . 

 Black-footed Raccoon. 



Frocyon hernandezii, Wagleb, Isis, XXIV, 1831, 514.— Baikd, Gen. Eep. Mammals, 1857, 212. 



[See chap. 2, p. 94.] 



How far east the black-footed raccoon extends is still a matter of some doubt. In 1855 

 Mr. Sinclair, a gentleman then in charge of the Hudson Bay fort at Walla-Walla, informed me 

 that the "raccoon" does not extend north of the 50th parallel. But as Mr. Sinclair had spent 

 the greater part of his life in the Saskatchewan and Red river regions, it is probable that his 

 remark applied only to the P. lotor, the common species east of the Rocky mountains. The 

 P. hernandezii is found quite abundant on Puget Sound, as far as 48° north, and probably 

 extends along the coast to a point at least as high as the 55th parallel. This opinion the 

 mildness of the winters of that section of the northwest coast seems to justify. 



I obtained many specimens of this species while at Fort Steilacoom. They are quite 

 abundant in that vicinity, having much the same habits as the common raccoon of the Atlantic 

 States; taking to trees when pursued too closelj^ by dogs; feeding and moving about occasionally 

 in the day, but most frequently at night; frequenting the borders of ponds at night, in pursuit 

 of frogs, dead fish, &c.; more or less gregarious in their character, and when wounded, or at 

 night while engaged in combats or courtships, filling the air with their noisy, snarling, cat-like 

 screams. In these and in all other habits they resemble "that same old coon" at home. 



Mr. Sinclair, whose long experience in the fur trade entitles his statements to respect, gave 

 me some interesting statistics concerning the valuable part that the fur of the raccoon takes in 

 ■ that lucrative business. He stated that several years ago, at one of the great regular semi- 

 annual fur sales at Loudon, over 730,000 raccoon skins were sold, of which the majority were 



