x A LITTLE BROTHER OF THE BEAR 279 
them with his fore paws. It is also a most suc- 
cessful frog-hunter, and may frequently be tracked 
along the river’s edge, where it has been searching 
for frogs, crayfish, water-snails, and dead mussels. 
In summer frogs often form a large portion of its 
food, when some species leave the water and there- 
fore are easily caught. Insects are eaten to some 
extent, as are slugs and snails. It also feeds 
largely upon various vegetables in summer; and 
its particular fondness for green corn (maize) is 
well known to every farmer... . In winter they 
will occasionally eat the ripened grain, and have 
been known to visit corn-cribs for that purpose. 
They are also said to eat acorns, and to gnaw 
through pumpkins to procure the seeds; probably, 
like the bear, they feed more or less on berries. 
In confinement they are exceedingly fond of sugar. 
Like the squirrels and spermophiles, they some- 
times dig up newly planted corn.” 
The common name along the southern coasts 
of the United States for the small, narrow, tangled, 
wild oysters that grow so abundantly in the salt- 
marshes and inlets, is ‘‘’coon-oyster,” in reference 
to the practice of the raccoons, who come down 
to feed upon them at high tide. It is an old tra- 
dition, that the animals now and then get caught 
by a big one closing upon its paw and holding it 
until the tide rises and drowns the animal; but I 
have never known of such a case, though I have 
seen the animal searching the oyster-reefs in 
