54 



water and invariably taking to a stream if leading in the 

 direction in which they wish to go, they are not likely to be 

 tracked to their hiding places by dogs. So well aware of 

 this fact do the ' coons ' seem to be that I know of one that 

 actually brought forth and raised a litter of young between 

 the roof and ceiling of an outhouse, which was built over a 

 stream leading away to the woods, in the village of Dobbs 

 Ferry, within a few rods of the mam road, Broadway. 



Like the bear, the Raccoon passes the depths of winter in a 

 state of hibernation and emerges from his retreat about the 

 middle of March in this locality, well rid of the good store of 

 fat with which nature had supplied him. 



The Raccoon is still hunted and trapped quite extensively 

 in the county, both for sport and for its skin. The hunting 

 is usually done at night with the aid of one or more dogs. 

 The dogs are permitted to range through the swamps until 

 their excited barkmgs announce to the hunters that the ' coon 

 is treed.' He is usually shaken from the tree to be killed 

 by the dogs below, or is dispatched with a gun shot. In 

 trapping, a steel-trap is set under water in shallow places in a 

 brook or ditch, and unless the trap is so placed few if any of 

 the animals will be taken. In populous districts where they 

 are much persecuted by the combined efforts of dog and man, 

 they adapt themselves to circumstances and take up their 

 abode permanently in " blind drains " i. e. covered ditches, 

 where they are free from attack. They even pass the winter 

 there hi preference to risking themselves hi the usual hollow 

 tree. 



Fhoca vitulina Linn. Haeboe Seal. 



During the winter of 1889, when the river was full of 

 floating ice, I remember having seen a seal in the Hudson 

 River opposite Hastings, but have neither seen nor heard of 

 any since. Dr. Fisher 6 , writing in 1896 (p. 200) says: 

 1 Almost every spring one or more seals are seen about the 



