TIIK IJACC.'OON. 



ger of a steel trap placed in water and covered with ])right tin foil. 

 In this way the 'coons are often caught without bait. 



There is a peculiar charm about 'coon hunting where the animals 

 are numei-ous enough to make it reasonably certain that the dogs 

 will tree one. A good 'coon dog is the first requisite, for dogs that 

 will trail a fox or a rabbit will not always tree a 'coon. When a 

 warm trail is struck it is seldom long before the animal is treed and 

 the dogs gather around the tree, making the woods reverberate with 

 their bellow. A lantern with a good reflector is the next thing 

 needed, to "shine the 'coon" as the process is called. When the 

 hunters come up, the light from the lantern is thrown up among the 

 branches and if the 'coon is there, his greenish yellow eyes can 

 usually be seen, glaring down from high in the top, and the hunter 

 uses them as a mark at which to aim. In the days of good marks- 

 men, the use of any weapon but a rifle was scorned. At the present 

 day the choke-bored shot gun is more often used and it will gener- 

 ally carry high enough to bring down the animal from any tree left 

 standing in our forests. 



It was stated above that the animals are poorly adapted for 

 either flight or fight, but they can fight desperately when brought 

 to bay. I once saw an old female, standing in a shallow pool of 

 water with her back to an overhanging bank, keep four husky dogs 

 at bay for ten or fifteen minutes. She was finally captured alive by 

 slipping a noose over her head from the bank above and swinging 

 her up into a box. 



A hollow stub of an oak had been cut to drive her out. Besides 

 the adult, five .young, w^eighing perhaps eight or ten ounces each, 

 were found in the nest of leaves inside the stub. They were all 

 taken alive and kept for some weeks. They showed very great dif- 

 ferences of disposition and only one became really tame. He re- 

 mained a pet until late summer, when he escaped. Two or three 

 days later he came back and began paddling in his dish, which was 

 his way of asking for food. He was chained up and remained until 

 October, when he again escaped and w^as not seen afterward. 



He would eat anything the cats would eat and w^as fond of milk, 

 but he resented any interference when eating and was always less 

 tractable with strangers than with those he knew. Besides his ordi- 

 nary food, he once caught a salamander and ate it, and another time 

 a garter snake. However, the delicacy he most esteemed was crayfish, 

 and it was always difficult to persuade him to leave when he ^as 

 taken to the creek to catch them. This he did with his hands with- 



