RACCOON. V7 
voraciously than the squirrel or the blackbird, and is the last to quit the 
cornfield. 
The favourite resorts of the Raccoon are retired swampy lands well 
covered with lofty trees, and through which are small water-courses. In 
such places its tracks may be seen following the margins of the bayous 
and creeks, which it occasionally crosses in search of frogs and muscles 
which are found on their banks. It also follows the margins of rivers for 
the same purpose, and is dexterous in getting at the shell-fish, notwith- 
standing the hardness of the siliceous covering with which nature has 
provided them. In dry seasons, the receding waters sometimes leave the 
muscles exposed to the heat of the sun, which destroys their life and 
causes their shells to open, leaving them accessible to the first animal or 
bird that approaches. 
In the dreary months of winter should you be encamped in any of the 
great Western forests, obliged by the pitiless storm to remain for some 
days, as we have been, you will not be unthankful if you have a fat 
Raccoon suspended on a tree above your camp^ for when kept awhile, 
the flesh of this species is both tender and well-flavoured. 
The Raccoon when full grown and in good condition we consider quite 
a handsome animal. We have often watched him with interest, cau- 
tiously moving from one trunk to another to escape his view. His bright 
eye, however, almost invariably detected us ere we could take aim at him, 
and he adroitly fled into a hollow tree and escaped from us. 
We once met with one of these animals whilst we were travelling on 
horseback from Henderson to Vincennes, on the edge of a large prairie in 
a copse, and on approaching it ran up a small sapling from which we 
shook it off with ease ; but as soon as it reached the ground it opened its 
mouth and made directly towards us, and looked so fierce, that drawing 
a pistol from our holsters, we shot it dead when it was only a few feet 
from us. 
The young are at their birth quite small ; (about the size of a half- 
grown rat ;) some that we saw in Texas were not more than two days 
old and were kept in a barrel. They uttered a plaintive cry not unlike 
the wail of an infant. 
The Raccoon usually produces from four to six young at a time, which 
are generally brought forth early in May, although the period of their 
littering varies in different latitudes. 
When the Indian corn is ripening, the Raccoons invade the fields to 
feast on the rich milky grain, as we have just stated, and as the stalks are 
too weak to bear the weight of these marauders, they generally break 
them down willi their fore-paws, tear off the husks from the ears, and 
