A LITTLE BROTHER OF THE BEAR 285 



incessantly ; and never were gayer at this sport 

 than in midwinter — this was in Philadelphia — 

 paddling about and playing with fragments of 

 floating ice. "Indeed," says Dr. Godman, "these 

 animals have never evinced the slightest dislike 

 to cold, or suffered in any degree therefrom ; they 

 have in all weathers slept in a flour-barrel thrown 

 on its side, with one end entirely open, and with- 

 out any material of which to make a bed. They 

 show no repugnance to being sprinkled or dashed 

 with water, and voluntarily remain exposed to the 

 rain or snow, which wets them thoroughly, not- 

 withstanding their long hair, which, being almost 

 erect, is not well suited to turn the rain." 



It is evident that creatures so tough as this 

 would not waste much time in winter torpidity 

 anywhere south of New York or St. Louis. Cer- 

 tainly they do not hibernate to any extent in 

 southern New Jersey, where, by the way, they 

 are becoming rare. Wherever hibernation does 

 take place it is probably due more to hunger than 

 to cold. Thus Mr. Burroughs tells us that in the 

 western Catskills the 'coons appear in March and 

 go "creeping about the fields, so reduced by starva- 

 tion as to be quite helpless, and offering no resist- 

 ance to my taking them up by the tail and carrying 

 them home." It is at this inhospitable season 

 that they come to the farmer's house, burrow 

 under his haystacks in search of mice, and invade 

 his poultry-yard ; a little later, too, as soon as the 



