when he stands the tail end of his body is lifted higher than the front,
and consequently his back appears curved. He walks like the dog,
putting the tips of his toes to the ground; but when he stops he lays
his feet flat.

He receives no mercy from the farmers, for he is of a sanguinary and
savage disposition, and commits great havoc among domestic as well as
wild birds, always destroying far more than he requires; merely eating
off their heads, or lapping up the blood which flows from their wounds.
He commits occasionally ravages in sugar-cane or Indian-corn
plantations; and, climbing with ease, catches birds, and devours their
eggs. He resembles the squirrel in his movements; and, like that
animal, when eating, sits on his hind-legs, and uses his fore-feet to
carry his food to his mouth. A story is told of a young tame raccoon
let loose in a poultry-yard, when, his natural disposition overcoming
his civilised manners, he sprang on a cock strutting in a dignified
fashion among the hens, and fixed himself on its back. The bird,
surprised at so unusual an attack, began scampering round the yard, the
hens scattering far and wide in the utmost confusion. Still the little
animal kept his seat, till he managed to get hold of the unfortunate
cock's head in his jaws, and before the bird could be rescued, had
crunched it up--still keeping his seat, in spite of the dying struggles
of his victim; and probably, had he not been bagged, would have treated
all the feathered inhabitants of the yard in the same fashion. When out
hunting on his own account, he often hides himself among the long reeds
on the bank of a lake or stream, and pouncing out on the wild ducks as
they swim incautiously by, treats them as he does the domestic fowls on
shore.

He partakes considerably of the cunning of the fox, yet, like that
animal, is frequently outwitted. A raccoon after a long chase managed
to reach a tree, which he quickly climbed, with the aid of his claws,
snugly ensconcing himself in the deserted nest of a crow. In vain the
hunters sought for him, till his long, annulated tail, which he had
forgotten to coil up within the nest, was seen pendent below it; and the
poor raccoon was quickly brought to the ground by a rifle ball.

He has gained the name of the lotor, or the washer, in consequence of
his habit of plunging his dry food into water before eating it. He also
drinks a large quantity of water. When moistening his food, he