FLASHLIGHT STORY OF PORCUPINE AND COON 575 



Photo by George Shiras, 3rd 



THE ONLY PLASH OBTAINED THE SECOND SEASON : FEEDING IN A DARK AND 

 PROTECTED CORNER, JUDY 20, I902, 8.15 P. M . 



THE THINGS A COON WON T EAT ARE THE 

 ONLY THINGS A PORCUPINE WILL EAT 



The coon, on the other hand, is an 

 inhabitant largely of the deciduous for- 

 ests, in the temperate and semi-tropical 

 zones, especially where such tracts con- 

 tain abandoned clearings, swamps, ponds, 

 watercourses, and open glades, with the 

 infinite variety of wild fruits and berries, 

 the eggs and young of nesting birds, and 

 frogs, mussels, and the crayfish of sub- 

 merged lands ; and, while he is forced to 

 hibernate in his more northerly range, he 

 greatly prefers a climate where he can 

 indulge in nightly rambles and in grati- 

 fying a most omnivorous and endless 

 appetite. Like his nearest prototype, the 

 black bear, he can go for a long period 

 on a single and limited form of diet, but 



is always willing, when the opportunity 

 comes, to partake of about every variety 

 of natural and artificially prepared food 

 which Nature or man may grant him. 

 In fact, the only things he won't eat are 

 the only things a porcupine will eat, 

 namely, bark, leaves, and water plants. 



Comparing and contrasting the porcu- 

 pine and the coon, one finds so manv 

 dissimilarities that little can be rated in 

 common. It is true that there is some- 

 what of a resemblance in size and shape, 

 and in the general blending of the black, 

 the white, the gray, and the yellow, so 

 that when one sees a fat coon or a 

 chubby porcupine curled up asleep in 

 the higher crotch of a shaded treetop ; 

 or, again, in the distance observes one 

 of these animals walking a log or ambling 

 beneath the alders in search of aquatic 



