Madison times., 1886-01-23

Deacon Brown rose up in the meet
ing and said:
Dominic, eff thez anyone in this
deestric' ez don't hunt coons his soul
hain't wuth savin.''
There was sport in the coon-hunt for
our fathers, and in great measure =
mans Importance in some communi-
ties was judged by the number of coon
skins he could nail to his barn door the
next morning after hunt.
Why the coon has come to be dcspiseG
by sportsmen in these later days is on,
of those things about which the remarl
has once or twice been made that no
fellow can find out He is rs cunning as
the fox and more difficult to trail. He
is, moreover, the cleanest of animals
and eats only the most wholesome o.
food. He should not be despised sure
ly because he can be hunted only at
night, for in treading the woods in th'
darkness, following dogs that you car
not see, and whose baying alone breaks
the stiffness, there is a most singular en-
chantment.
Even in localities where coons are
the most abundant nine out of ten OF
the present generation never saw one,
and few people know anything about
them or their habits. Although the
coon prefers the vicinity of civilization
as his habitat, he plans to keep aloof
from the eyes of men, and his habits
render this an easy task. BY day he
lies close in out-of-the-way retreats, in
the depths of hollow trees or isolated
crevices, and holes in the rocks. He
wanders forth only at night, and al
though his foraging expeditions may
take him to the very doors of farmers,
and even within the boundary lines of
villages, he never betrays his presence.
If more than one coon is brought to bay
in tree, they will invariably BE- females
or mother coon and her offspring.
The female brings forth her litter only
once in two years, and from the coming
of one litter until the arrival of another
she and her young are never separated.
She keeps her little family together
until they are 2 years old, and in pro-
tecting them will fight the attacking
dog or huntr until she dies. Many a
good coon dog has been forcedto retreat
before the fury of she coon fighting
for her young, and if she is captured the
whole family fall victims to the hunter.
The animal scent the coon leaves on
the trail is at all times less than that of
any other game quadruped, but when
the female is nursing her young during
the summer months her scent is hardly
preceptible to the dogs, thus saving her
and her litter from many a race for life.
The scent of the coon grows stronger
as the cold weather advances, and
through November ::and December the
degs follow it with comparatively little
difficulty.
While the female coon is social and
domestic, the male is quite the reverse.
He is surly and solitary, ranges entirely
alone, and gives no care or attention to
family matters. If two males meet in
the woods or in the field they fight furi-
ously. and not infrequcntly to the death.
An old coOn-hunter of this vicinity tells
how he once surprisd two male coons
lighting in cOrn-iield. They were so
frantically in earnest that they flew at
each other even after the dogs had
jumped upon them and taken hand in
the dispute. The male coon makes his
range for forage much wider than the
female does, and having no one to look
after but himself more frequently es-
capes the hunter.
In the spring and summer the mar.
gins of brooks and ponds and the soft
mud in swamps and bays in every coon
country are always thickly indentei
with the graceful footprints of the
coon, for in those months he spends his
nights in catching frogs, fish, lizards.
grubs and mussels, which are then his
chief subsistence. Later on he ranges
among the huckleberry and blackberry
patches, and feasts on the fruit. When
the milk comes in the corn is the coon's
gala time, for he loves the tender. sue
culent grains, as the farmer knows TO
his sorrow, and great are the risks he
Will take to forage in the fields. 1t is
not until the berries are gone and the
corn has grown tough i'm the ear that
the coon begins to look about for his
winter stores. These he lays by plenti-
fully from the beechnut. chestnut and
acorn crops, and on these crops de-
pends the hunting of the coon when he
is at his best During the hunting seas
on he is fat and solid and wide awake.
provided there are plenty of nuts.
Ii the crop is failure the coon
goes to his winter quarters thin
and miserable and poorly pre-
pared for the long winters
sleep and fast, wanders forth on every
day of thaw, although the snow NAV be
deep on the ground, in search of such
Tag ends Of provinder as may fall to his
iot' At such times the unfortunate coon
may be seen hoyerino uon o,l l.