RACCOON. 
433 
A letter from M. Blanqiaart to M. BuiFon gives 
us an amusing delineation of the manners of this 
animal. 
My raccoon, before he came into my posses- 
sion, had always been chained. * In this state of 
captivity, he was very gentle, but had little incli- 
nation to caress. The people of the house were all 
equally kind to him, but he received them diffe- 
rently ; for what pleased him in one, he revolted 
against in another ; and in this his conduct was 
invariable. 
His chain sometimes broke, and liberty ren- 
dered him insolent. He took possession of an 
apartment, and would allow none to enter it ; it 
was with some difficulty that he could be again 
reconciled to bondage. Since he came under my 
management, I have frequently given him his 
liberty. Without losing sight of him, I allowed 
him to walk about with his chain ; and each time 
his gratitude was expressed by a thousand caress- 
ing gambols ; but this is by no means the case 
when he makes his escape himself ; he then roams 
about, sometimes for three or four days together* 
upon the roofs of the neighbouring houses, de- 
scends during the night time into the court-yards* 
enters the hen-houses, strangles all the poultry* 
and eats their heads. His chain does not render 
him more humane, but more circumspect only ; 
he then employs every artifice to make the fowls 
grow familiar with him ; he permits them to partake 
of his victuals ; and it is only after having inspired 
them with the highest notions of security, that he 
seizes one and tears it in pieces. Some young cats 
have met with the same fate, 
^ This raccoon is not very grateful for the 
caresses he receives ; hut is extremely sensible of 
bad treatment. A servant one day gave him seve- 
ral lashes with a whip : but the man has endea* 
