120 FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOREST. 



victim. I saw where at length the fisher had made 

 an assault, and where a bloody contest had evidently 

 ensued. The raccoon, worsted in the encounter, had 

 again broken away and the chase was resumed, but 

 with diminished energy on the part of the raccoon ; 

 the animal had been soon overtaken again, and a still 

 more desperate encounter had taken place. The 

 coon had failed fast, and it had at last become mere- 

 ly a running fight, when both animals had entered 

 a swamp where it was impossible for me to trace 

 them further ; but I have no doubt the coon was 

 killed." 



It is said that the nest of the fisher is usually in 

 a hollow, standing tree, from thirty to forty feet 

 from the ground. The female bears from two to 

 four young ones about the 1st of May. 



The fisher's skin was evidently not very valuable 

 when De Kay wrote, in 184:2, thus : " The hunting 

 season for the fisher, in the northern part of the 

 State (New York), commences about the 10th of 

 October and lasts to the middle of May, when the 

 furs are not so valuable. The ordinary price is a 

 dollar and a half per skin." Such a low figure as this 

 would not hold good nowadays, for the least expen- 

 sive Eastern skin of the poorest quality brings that 

 price, and the most expensive one nine dollars. The 

 average price of a good pelt is seven dollars and a 



