PROCYON LOTOR. 
9 1 
Tribes are in the habit of clothing themselves with them; the fur or 
hair inside, the smooth side without, which, however, they paint so 
beautifully that, at a distance, it resembles lace. It is the opinion that 
they make use of the best for that purpose; what has poor fur they 
deem unsuitable for their clothing. When they bring their commodi- 
ties to the Traders, and find they are desirous to buy them, they make 
so very little matter of it, that they at once rip up the skins they are 
clothed with and sell them as being the best.”* 
The nest of the Otter is generally placed under some shelving bank 
or uprooted tree, and has been found in a hollow stub. The young 
are commonly brought forth about the middle of April, and two (rare- 
ly one or three) constitute a litter. Three Otters, the female with 
her two young, are usually seen together during the summer and fall. 
Family PROCYONlDHi. 
PROCYON LOTOR (Linn.) Storer. 
Raccoon. 
Raccoons are common everywhere about the borders of the Adiron- 
dacks, but they do not like dense evergreen forests and are therefore 
rather rare in the interior; still, they are occasionally met with in all 
parts of the Wilderness. 
They are .omnivorous beasts and feed upon mice, young birds, 
birds’ eggs, turtles and their eggs, frogs, fish, cray-fish, mollusks, 
insects, nuts, fruits, corn, and sometimes poultry. 
Excepting alone the bats and flying-squirrels, they are the most 
strictly nocturnal of all our mammals, and yet I have several times 
seen them abroad during cloudy days. They like to play in shallow 
water, along the banks of ponds and streams, and find much of their 
food in these places. They overturn stones and catch the cray-fish 
that lurk beneath, and also gather the fresh-water mussels ( Unio and 
Anodon) that live on sandy and muddy bottoms. They also catch 
* Translated in The Documentary Hist, of the State of New York, Vol. Ill, 1850, p. 36. 
