Evening star., 1901-11-02
Lights and Shadows of the World of
Nature.
SOURCE OF ALL COON KNOWLEDGE
Why Our feathered Pets Migrate
Each Season.
INIT ESTIN G H ABIT S

Copyright, 1901, by Hughes ousley Leuisville.) }
Every one who has been an observer of
the things nature has to offer knows that
the common raccoon is very partial to
crawfish as an article of diet. We do not
often see the animals catch and eat the
crawfish but all up and down the muddy
banks of streams the "coons' leave tell
tale tracks.
To the keen observer these tracks in the
soft mud show the fiat impression of the
long paws, and he at once knows that the
animal has been moving slowly. When
coon is in hurry he racks along on
his toes and leaves different print from
when he is taking his time and walking
fiat-footed. Then, too. the small stones
lying near the edge of the stream have
been moved as the animal hunted about in
the shallow water for crawfish.
Most of my knowledge of ''eoons' has
been gained from certain old, gray-headed
darkies with whom l have followed the
dogs on chilly fall and winter nights. This
knowledge was largely hunting lore-as to
when and where We were most likely to
strike trail in different kinds of weather. /
learned from them what the different styles
of baying of the dogs meant. Therefore.
really most of what l knew of ''coons"
was through the chase and had nothing to
do with the animals every night life.
Not long ago as l passed through the
main street of a small village l saw boy
standing on the sidewalk with two half
grown "coons" climbing on his shoulders.
1 stopped to talk with the lad and learn
something of his pets, and discovered that
he was on his way to allow them to hunt
for crawfish In a nearby stream. i got my
camera and went with him to take some
characteristic poses of the animals as they
fished.
When we reached the stream the "coons"
were very eager and quickly waded into
the shallow water and began to fish. / was
surprised to see that they did most of their
fishing by the sense of touch. Quite often
they did not even look into the water as
their deft fore paws were pushed under
the loose stones lying on the bottom. They
had learned from experience that if just
one paw was thrust under the crawfish
would dart out on the opposite side, so they
invariably put paw on each side 1t was
wonderful to see how rapidly and surely
they caught all sizes of crawfish, from the
big ones armed with dangerous pinchers TO
little half-grown fellows less than an inch
long. The moment a fish was caught the
coon" sQuatted on its hind legs and held
1t to it's mouth with both paws. If the
crawfish was very large and had dangerous
pinchers 1t was rolled rapidly between the
paws to prevent injury while it was being
bitten in two.
In one picture the coon is shown in the
shallow water and both paws are busy un-
der the small fiat stones which cover the
bed of the stream. In the second photo
graph one of them has found some dead
fish or other dainty tidbit on top of a big
rock. / tried to get a photograph of one
of them as it ate a crawfish, but IL was too
quick for me.
How Birds Make Long Flights.
Time after time We see accounts of the
wonderful, long-continued flights of some
of the migratory.birds. The accounts often
end with calculation, showing that the
energy expended in keeping the bird in
the air and carrying it forward on it's jour-
ney would more than consume the whole
weight of the bird. This has been a puz-
zling problem for long time. Engineers
knew that for very fast running on a rail-
road a great deal of coal is necessary to
overcome the air pleasure, which increases
rapidly as the train moves faster. Thus it
was perfectly natural to apply the same
calculation to a bird travelling with great
velocity through the upper air.
While Prof. Langley of the Smithsonian
Institution was experimenting before he
began to construct his celebrated flying
machine he discovered some valuable
things in regard to flight. These discover
les have thrown a strong light on the great
powers of rapid, long-continued flights of
birds. Prof Langley learned that by NOV
ing body rapidly through the air it float
ed, and thus no energy was required to