x ALITTLE BROTHER OF THE BEAR 293 
and squatting down snarls at ‘the stranger, who 
tries to shake loose its hold. But this is a vain 
attempt. A raccoon can cling like a burr. Try to 
drag your pet ’coon off the top of a fence, and if 
he chooses to resist, you may pull him limb from 
limb before he will let go. So they take the severer 
method of chopping the branches, until the poor 
little beast has none left to clutch in falling, and 
comes down a heap of fur and teeth and claws into 
the midst of the dogs. Instantly there follows a 
scrimmage, where often an honest bark is changed 
in the middle to a yelp of pain, until many a time 
the mélée changes to a ring of hurt and angry but 
vanquished curs around a ’coon lying on his back, 
with bloody teeth and claws ready to try it again; 
and then he is shot by the hunters, merciless to the 
last. More often the whole tree must be cut down, 
and the brave ’coon falls with it, and is dashed out 
among his enemies to fight for his life at the end 
of his fall. If meanwhile a large ’possum has been 
taken alive, he is usually pitted against the ’coon, 
and it is even betting which will win. This noc- 
turnal foray, where the prey may be either an 
opossum or a raccoon, or perhaps both, and now 
and then a bear, is especially the sport of the 
Southern negroes, who have got the name “coons”’ 
in consequence, — that is, ’coon-hunters. 
Young ones taken on these expeditions or in 
traps—spring-traps are said to be most effective 
when set under water, beside some lily-coated frog 
