280 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. 
broad daylight, as well as by the light of the 
harvest moon. I question whether it ever hap- 
pens, for the ‘coon is not only too quick-witted 
but too nimble to be caught in a trap acting so 
slowly as that. 
He is as clever as a monkey with his front paws 
—and with the hind ones, too, for that matter. 
A palmist would find, curiously enough, the same 
arrangement of “lines” and “ mounts” in his palm 
as in those of a cat or a weasel, and would deduce 
similarity of acumen and behavior to those animals 
and be more nearly right than palmists usually 
are. These palms seem to be extremely sensitive, 
and by them he is able to distinguish objects very 
nicely. The fore feet, in fact, are never still, but 
are everlastingly moving in examination of what- 
ever is within reach; and to see one sit up with 
his back against a log, holding something to eat 
between his hind feet, and daintily picking away 
and handing morsels to his mouth with his paws, 
is irresistibly comic. An egg is thus managed 
without wasting a drop, the teeth breaking a small 
opening in one end, and the tongue lapping up the 
contents while the shell is held firmly in the feet. 
Raccoons are fond of many kinds of fruit and ber- 
ries. Dr. ©. C. Abbot puts into his “ Upland and 
Meadow ’”’a pleasant note of experience on this point. 
“There in a small gum-tree, largely overgrown 
by a fox-grapevine, sat a small raccoon... and 
simply stared without winking as I approached. 
