arartnenT? 
[7% Ler | 
< 
z 
wenviee ae 
cue comma Way-Atcha, the Coon—Raccoon 
boring trunk in broad daylight, for a hollow tree 
has a dead top, but in the gloom the Coon seemed 
to go from one great column to the next with cer- 
tainty, and knew without climbing them if they were 
not for her; and at last by the bend where the creek 
and river join, she climbed the huge dead maple, 
like one who knows. 
This is the perfect lodgment of Coon-Raccoon— 
high up some mighty, towering tree in some deep, 
dangerous swamp, near running water with its 
magic and its foods, a large, convenient chamber, 
dry and lined with softest rotten wood, a tight-fit 
doorway, and near it some great branch which gets 
the sun’s full blazeinday. This is the perfect home, 
and this was what the mother Coon had found. 
THE HOME 
In April the brood had come, five little ones, 
ring-tailed and black-masked like their parents. 
Their baby time was gone, and now in June they 
were old enough to come out on bright days, and 
sit in a row on the big limb that was their sunning 
place. Very early in life their individual char- 
acters appeared. There was the timid one whose 
tail was a ring too short, the fat gray one that was 
last to leave the nest, and the very black-masked 
one who was big, restless, and ready to do anything 
92 
ger 
b= mS See 
Be 
Grey ( ; galas 
: rn = 
