AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
75 
fined. During his stay with me, his confinement was fre- 
quently suspended; without losing sight of him, I allowed 
him to walk about with his chain on, and he expressed his 
gratitude by various movements. It was otherwise when 
he escaped by his own efforts: he would then ramble for 
three or four days together over the neighbouring roofs, 
and only descend at night into the yards, enter the hen- 
roosts and destroy the poultry, especially the Guinea- 
fowls, eating nothing but their heads. His chain did not 
render him less sanguinary, though it made him more cir- 
cumspect; he then employed stratagem, allowing the 
poultry to familiarize themselves with him by partaking 
of his food, nor was it until he had induced them to 
feel in perfect security that he would seize a fowl and 
tear it to pieces: he also killed kittens in the same man- 
ner. 
“ If the Raccoon he not very grateful for favours re- 
ceived, he is singularly sensible of bad treatment; a ser- 
vant one day struck him some blows with a stick, and 
often afterwards vainly endeavoured to conciliate him, by 
offering eggs and shrimps, of which the animal was very 
fond. At the approach of this servant he became enraged, 
and with sparkling eyes would spring towards him, mak- 
ing violent outcries; under such circumstances he would 
accept of nothing until his enemy had withdrawn. The 
voice of the Raccoon, when enraged, is very singular, 
sometimes resembling the whistling of a curlew, and at 
others the hoarse barking of an old dog. When struck 
by any one, or attacked by an animal stronger than him- 
self, he offered no resistance; like the hedge-hog, he hid 
his head and paws, by rolling his body in form of a ball, 
and would have suffered death in that position. I have 
observed that he never left hay nor straw in his bed, pre- 
ferring to sleep on the boards; when litter was given, he 
threw it away immediately. He did not seem very sen- 
sible to cold, and passed two out of three winters exposed 
to all the rigours of the season, and did well, notwith- 
standing he was frequently covered with snow. I do not 
think he was solicitous to receive warmth; during some 
frosts I gave him separately warm water, and water almost 
frozen, to soak his food in, and he always preferred the 
latter. He was at liberty to sleep in the stable, but often 
preferred passing the night in the open yard. ” 
Captivity and domestication produce great changes in 
the habits of this animal, as he learns to spend nearly the 
whole of the daytime in active exercise, and sleeps during 
the greater part of the night. When inclined to sleep, 
the Raccoon forms itself into a sort of ball, by sitting on 
its hind legs, and doubling the head under the body, so as 
to apply the forehead to the ground; the tail is then 
brought forward so as to conceal the feet and face on one 
side, and the true figure of the animal is no longer dis- 
cernible. In this position the Raccoon sleeps profoundly, 
and is not startled readily, nor by slight sounds. 
The size of the Raccoon varies with the age and sex of 
the individual. A full grown male may be stated to have 
the body a foot, or a few inches more, in length; the high- 
est part of the back is about a foot from the ground, while 
the highest part of the shoulder is ten inches. The head 
is about five, and the tail rather more than eight inches 
long. The female is larger than the male in every respect, 
at least such is the fact in relation to the Raccoons now in 
my possession, which, however, have not yet attained 
their full growth. They are of the same age, and the fe- 
male is strongly distinguished from the male by the black 
markings on all parts of the body being more purely black, 
and the fur and hair longer, thicker, and more glossy than 
that of the male; these peculiarities, in addition to her 
greater size, uniformly lead strangers to suppose this indi- 
vidual to be the male, instead of the female. The pelage 
of the male is not only less purely black at the extremities 
of the hairs, but there is a much greater intermixture of 
fawn-coloured hair than in the female, giving more of a 
rusty appearance to the whole surface of his body. A 
young Raccoon of thirty days old, is about the size of a 
common cat of a year old, though the greater length of 
its legs, and the bushiness of its pelage, make it at first 
sight appear much larger. 
The general colour of the body is a blackish-gray, which 
is paler on the under part of the body, and has, over consi- 
derable part of the neck, back and sides, some fawn or 
light rust-coloured hair intermixed. The general gray 
colour is owing to the manner in which the hairs are alter- 
nately ringed with black and dingy white. The tail is 
very thickly covered with hair, and is marked by five 
or six black rings around it, on a yellowish-white 
ground. 
The head, which is about five inches long, is very tri- 
angular, and from its pointed snout reminds us of the aspect 
of the fox: the snout terminates in a smooth and shining 
black membrane, through which the nostrils open, having 
the slit to rise slightly at the sides. The nose is pro- 
longed considerably beyond the upper jaw, and this, toge- 
ther with its great flexibility, gives the animal great 
advantages in exploring little crevices and crannies for 
insects, &c. The pupils of the eyes are round ; the ears are 
oval, or rather elliptic, and of a yellowish-white colour on 
their extremities and anterior edges. The face is whitish 
in front, but there is a black patch surrounding the eye, 
that descends entirely to the lower jaw, over the posterior 
part of which it is diffused, and a black line running from 
the top of the head down the middle of the face, ending 
