26 
ANIMALS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
this. From its fondness for water it is usually found in low 
wooded swamps, making its lair in some hollow tree. It is 
nocturnal, restless, and mischievous in its habits, feeding on 
wild and domesticated fowls, frogs, lizards, fish, and insects. 
The tail of the Racoon is never affected by even the coldest 
weather ; hence, it never gnaws it, as other animals of its 
species are known to do, especially the Coati of South 
America, of which the most marvellous accounts have been 
given, that it devours its own tail. This however has doubt- 
less arisen from the extreme length of that appendage, in 
which the blood circulates feebly, thus exposing it to the 
slightest influence of cold or frost ; the irritation thereby 
produced, leading the animal to gnaw and scratch its extremity 
to allay that irritation, till it not unfrequently falls a victim to 
spinal disease produced by this expedient. The Racoon is 
easily susceptible of domestication ; one formerly in possession 
of the writer being as tame as a cat, and sitting up on its 
haunches to receive its food in its forepaws before devouring 
it, and being remarkably cleanly in its habits. Occasionally 
it commits great depredations among the fields of Indian corn 
while in the milky state ; and this, together with its occasional 
descents upon the barnyard, scarcely compensates the farmer 
for its zeal in digging up and devouring grubs or the larvae 
of injurious insects. 
The American Badger ( Meles Labradoria) has only 
recently been ascertained to be a distinct species from the 
European ; it was formerly looked upon as a new variety, till 
the publication of Sabine’s Appendix to Long’s Expedition. 
Description . — Color hoary with a white stripe down the 
forehead, body robust, long on the legs; ears short and wide. 
The old stories of the life of the Badger being gloomy and 
wretched from its underground habits, are ridiculous, for 
Nature evidently destined it for a subterranean and solitary 
life. It is entirely inoffensive, and being like the racoon, 
nocturnal, little is accurately known respecting it. The 
