Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1888-07-22

the coon leaves on the trail is at all times
less than of any other game quadrupeo,
but when the female is nursing her young
during the summer months her scent is
hardly p~erceptible to the dogs, thus saving
her and her litter from many q racefor HE
The scent of the coon grows stronger as the
cold weather advances, snd through NO.
vember and December the dogs follow IL
with comparatively little difficulty.
While the female coon is domestic n 90
cial, the male is quite the reverse. de IL
surly aud solitary, ranges entirely alone,
aud gives no care or attention to family
matters. If two males meet in the woods
or in the field they fight furiously, and not
iufrequently to the death. An old coon
hunter in this vicinity tells how he once
surprised two male coons fighting in q corn
field. They were so franticslly in earnest
that they few at each other even after the
dogs had jumped on them and taken q hand
in the combat.
In the spring and summer the margins
of brooks and ponds and the soft mud in
swamps and bays in every coon country
are always thickly indented with the grace
fol footprints Of the coon. or 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 fessts On the fruit.
When the milk comes in the corn is the
coon's gala time, for he loves the tender,
s~ucculent 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 in the ear that the
coon begins to look out for his winter
stores. These he lays by plentifully fcom
the beech nut, chestnut and acorn crops,
and on these crops depends the hunting of
the o when he is at his best. During
the nutting season he lie fat and solid and
wide awake, provided there are plenty of
nuts. 1.-THE crop is a failure, the coon
goes to his winter quarters thin and
miserable, and poorly prepared for the long
winters sleep and fast, wanders forth
every day Of thsw, although the snow may
lie deep on the ground, in search ofsuch fay
ends Of provender IS may fall to his lot.
At such times the unfortunate coon may
be seen lowering, worn and hsggard, on
the edges Of farm and dooryard, waiting
for an opportunity to pick up scraps from
the kitchen, the poultry yard or pigsty.
One popularity of the coon, which, like
most of his peculiarities, has escaped the
attention Of the naturalists who write
books, is that he never touches food until
he has qusffed from some spring or brook,
even if he is compelled to 20 far to find it.
Old coon hunters say that the coon dips
every mouthful of his food in water before
eating it, but like all hunters, old coon
hunters say a great many things it would
bother them to prove. 1t is doubtful
whether there are many people who know
that in no other country on the globe be-
sides the American continent eau the coon
be found, and that although he is a favor
lite game 10 the South, he is nowhere so
gamey and excellent in condition as in the
Middle States. When the coon grows in
o~Idinstely fat and large he lessons his
chances of falling a victim TO the hunter,
for then he ventures but a short distance
from his hiding place and gives the dog
small opportunity for finding his trail. 1t
was rare for this season, ever in the days
when coon hunting was a science, that a
coon over 90 pounds in weight was ever
bagged, although they have been known
to attain a weight Of 40 pounds.
The hills and valleys of Northern Penn
sylvsnis were always great retreats for the
coon, but never were these maligned ami
mails so plentiful as they are this year. The
manner in which the opportunities they
offer for rare good sport" are neglected is
enough to make the bones of dead and
gone lovers of the the starlit chase turn and
rattle in their graves. Hunters 60 put on
the barren hills daily and stand sbivering
or a windswept runway waiting for the
deer that never comes, or tramp from morn
ing till night through swampy swales and
brsmbly thickets hunting the pheasant that
fails to rise, while a sport that famous men
loved and elevated and grew enthusiastic
over years ago, and from which no hunter
can return without pleasure and profit,
goes begging on every side. What the
country needs is sportsmen with less affec-
tstion and more snap-and the coon dog of
our fathers.