174 
vertebr/t'a. 
" Coon. — Captain John Scott ? 
" Hunter. — The same.. 
" Coon. — Well, well, don't fire ; its no use. I'll come down directly." 
The raccoon is about twenty-six inches long ; the tail eight inches ; the weight twenty to 
twenty-five pounds. The head is rather round, the nose sharp and flexible, and the expression of 
the face cunning, sly, and foxy. The feet are plantigrade, and hence the animal was con- 
sidered by some early naturalists as a small bear. The general color of the fur is blackish gray, 
but paler on the under part of the body ; the point of the nose and soles of the feet black, and the 
eyes black. Around the face is a circle of yellowish-white hair. The tail is marked with five or 
six black rings, and is tipped with black. The body is stout, the back arched upward, the legs 
i-ather long, and the claws strong. 
The fiivorite haunts of the raccoon are solitary forests upon marshy grounds, intersected by 
streams. His food consists of birds' eggs, the eggs of the soft-shelled turtle, frogs, mussels, and 
various other small animals. Along the coast in the Southern States, he finds a species of oyster 
RACCOON. 
in which ho delights : though we are told that he sometimes pays dear for the whistle, as he gets 
his paw caught by a fixed shell, and, unable to escape, he is drowned by the returning tide. 
Sometimes he creeps silently in the sedges like a cat, snapping up a duck that comes within his 
reach. He climbs trees with ease, and not unfrequeutly robs the nests of the woodpecker, by 
putting his long paws into the holes which this bird has chiseled in the limb of a dry tree. 
When the corn is in the milk, he steals at night into the fields and feasts himself to satiety, 
reckless of the damage done to the crop, and the ire of the planter Avhen he discovers the theft. 
His conical head and sharp, flexible nose are not made in vain, for these enable him to pry into 
corners and cre\dces for spiders, worms, and the larvae of various insects, of which he is very 
fond. 
Thus the raccoon is an animal of large resources and marked character. He goes prowling 
about as well by night as by day. He is a fisher, a hunter, a trapper, a reaper, or a fly-catcher, 
as occasion may require. He is instinctively cunning as the fox, inquisitive and meddlesome as 
the monkey, greedy as a bear, sly as a cat. In northern climates, on the approach of winter, 
he retires to his home and sleeps like the bear till spring, or only goes abroad occasionally in fair 
weather. At the South, he is active during the year. His nest is usually made in the hollow 
trunk of a tree. From four to six young ones are produced at a birth, this event taking place in 
-May. The young coons are half as big as a rat, and utter a plaintive wail like an infant. 
