AINKAJOU AND COATIS 
with certain doglike creatures which lived during the geological age known 
as the Oligocene, perhaps over a million years ago. These animals of 
ancient days were the direct ancestors of the modern raccoons. So it was 
a hint of the far-distant past which squealed and leaped about our tent at 
night.” 
A second larger species makes its home in the Tropics, where 
also dwells a relative the kinkajou, or potto as the Brazil- 
ian negroes call it, borrowing very naturally the i, 
ee ; 3 A ‘ Kinkajou. 
name of an African lemur, for this animal looks 
like a yellowish, woolly, round-headed, long-bodied galago. 
It dwells almost altogether in trees, feeds on fruit and insects, 
SourTH AMERICAN KINKAJOU. 
honey, etc., and has a long, prehensile tail; its good nature 
and monkeylike activity make it a favorite pet. 
Lastly we come to the long-nosed, pig-snouted, ring-tailed, 
funny and fierce little brown coatis, which root up the mold 
of the tropical woods in search of worms, grubs, 
beetles, and other edibles. These piglike man- 
ners are enhanced by their gathering in packs, when they be- 
come foes by no means to be despised by larger animals, for 
their tusks are long and sharp. Lockington” and Belt” 
give the fullest accounts known to me, —the former of the 
animal in captivity, and the latter wild. Says Belt: — 
Coatis. 
“One day I came upon a pack of ‘pisotis’ (Nasua fusca), a raccoon- 
like animal that ascends all the small trees, searching for birds’ nests and 
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