Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-12-21
HABITS OF THE coon.
THE ONLY WAY TO TRAP THE WARY
LITTLE ANIMAL.
Unless You Understand How to Do 1t,
he VIII Be Too Smart
For You.

Pittsburg, who has been spending few
days on Lake Kenka, to New York .Sm
reporter, and who says if there is anything
he knows all about it's coons. "If am
one ever told you he trapped a coon in the
woods, he told you what never happened
Coons can't be trapped except in one way
and I never found coon-hunter yet who
knew how it was DONE I've made study
of coons from the time l was a barefoot
youngster, and | know what Pm talking
about. The old coon-hunters of western
Pennsylvania first put me up to trying tc
trap a coon, and tried it for years before
] discovered the only way it could be done
"The coon leaves the coolest scent be.
hind it Of any animal that lives, but il
carries the keenest in front of it of any
animal. You may track a coon to his
home in the crevice of some rock, which
is a favorite retreat for him. You NAV
place your trap in front of the hole and
disguise it as You may, cover it with leaves
foot deep if you like, but the coon will
never leave that hole as long as that trap
is there. He will starve to death first, as
have proved on more than one occasion.
He can smell the iron of that trap, and he
seems to know the danger it threatens him
with. He knows it will be death to leave
the hole, and he prefers death by starva-
ton to being trapped. have tried iron
traps and snares and all sorts of devices,
but could not succeed in fooling one of
these wise little animals into getting
caught by me until one day a new idea
struck me. 1t isn't often you see coon in
the daytime unless you know where to
look for them. If there's a creek in your
vicinity in which crawfish are plentiful
you will be likely to discover some cpl
curean coon fishing for them if you hide at
the side of the creek and keep very quiet.
"The coon is particularly fond of craw-
fish. The way he fishes for them is to
wade in the creek, generally going down
stream. The crawfsh live under the stones
on the bottom. The coon feels under each
thrusting one under one side and
the other on the other side. 1t
is a comical sight to see a coon
fishing for crawfsh. He keeps his head
high in the air, moving it up and down
and to and fro his eyes evidently gazing at
nothing, every sense seeming to be concen-
trated on the business beneath the water.
You can tell in a second when he has fast
ened on a crawhsh, for the expression on
his face changes instantly from the dull,
vacant stare to one of brightness and ami
nation. He draws the crawfish out of the
water, and, standing on his hind feet, rolls
it smartly between his paws. This brushes
the she'll and claws of the crawfsh and
makes the sweet meat more accessible.
The coon eats his capture with great rel
ish and then begins the search for another
one.
"While watching a coon fishing in this
way one day got the new idea of trap
ping for coons. | thought that by placing
a steel trap under the water in the creek
where coons did their fishing, they could
be deceived and more than likely caught.
tried the experiment. | sank two traps
at different places on a favorite crawfshing
route for coons, and the same afternoon
found a coon in each trap. And that is the
only way you can trap coon.
"Coons are very fond of corn, and so are
squirrels. Farmers often charge dam
age done to their corn to coons when
it is done by squirrels, and vice versa.
There should be no installing the work of
a coon in a cornfeld. He is a most wan
tonly destructive pest. He will strip an
ear, eat a portion of it, tear it from the
stalk and so on until he is satisfied. He
destroys ive-fold more than he eats
Squirrels are not one-tenth as destructive
as coons. The farmer may tell what kind
of squirrel has been helping himself to his
corn if he is observant. The gray and
and black squirrel eat the whole of the
grain, while the saucy red squirrel nips
out the heart and throws the rest away.
~ often hear hunters talk about smok-
ing coons out of hollow trees where they
have been located If they say they have
done the smoking by burning straw or
leaves or substances of that kind, | don't
believe them. Coon hunters in western
PENNSYLVANIA know by long experience
that there is only one thing the smoke of
which will force a coon to beat a retreat
from his hollow tree. You may burn
leaves or straw till the cows come home,
but you won't get your coon. You can
hear him sneezing every little while like
man with the hay fever but that is all
the effect the smoke will have on him. II
him out of the tree, you must take what
we call a sulphur match over in western
Pennsylvania. The continuing sulphur
match is made by melting down a quantity
of sulphur in saucer and saturating a
strip of muslin few inches long and an
inch or two wide in it. When you run
your coon into hollow tree all you've got
to do is to put your sulphur match at the
bottom of the hole and light it. 1t won't
be burning ten seconds before Mr.. Coon
will pop out of his hollow as if he'd been
shot from catapult, and then if you don't
get him it's your fault.
Il never read anything about the habits
of the coon yet that didn't say that the
animal lay up stores to subsist on during
the winter, and / never met any one who
protested to know anything about coons
that didn't hold the same thing. A coon
depends on stores it collects to see il
through winter Just about as much as the
bear does, and everybody knows that the
bear goes to sleep in his hole when the
weather drives him in, and doesn't gen
orally wake up until spring, and so he
can't eat much. The coon does the same
thing, except that he viii wake up now
then on some fine day and take little
stroll through the country. When he goes
to his winter home he rolls himself with
his nose between his hind legs, and very
close to his hams at that, and gives him.
self up to oblivion. When he comes out
in the spring he is as thin as a shadow
I've cut down dozens of coon trees in the
winter and always found the coons in that
rolled-up position, with not a Yesiige o.
anything to eat in the hole. If a coor
comes out on a winters day and the ground
Is all covered with snow he viii accept the
inevitable and walk on the snow to hi;
destination, but if the snow is in patche:
or lies in scattered banks the coon viii
follow the leading of the bare ground
around the patches of snow, keeping shy
of oil CONTACT with them alfhnnrh such Z