Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1889 — HABITS OF THE COON. [ARTICLE]

HABITS OF THE COON.

There is Only One Way to Trap the Wild Sinless Yon Understand How to Do It, He Will Be Too Smart for You Every TimsAn Old Hunter Gives the Result of His Observations. “Did you ever hear any one say he had trapped a coon?" said a Pittsburg--3r who has been spending a few days an Lake Kenka, to a New Ycrk Sun reporter, and who says that if there is anything he knows all about it’s coons. “If any one ever told you he trapped i coon in the woods he told you what tiever happened. Coons can’t be trapped except in one way, and I never found a coon hunter yet who knew how it was done. The old coon hunters of western Pennsylvania put me up to trying to trap a coon, and I tried it for pears before I discovered the only way it could be done. “The coon leaves the coldest scent behind it of any animal that lives, nut it carries the keenest in front of it of any animal. You may place your trap in front of the hole and disguise it as you may. cover it with leaves a' foot deep if you like, but that coon will never leaye that hole as long as that trap is there. He will starve to j death first, as I have proved on more than one occasion. He can the 1 iron of that trap, and he seems to I know the danger it threatens him 1 with. He knows it will be death to leave the hole, .- nd he prefers death by starvation to being trapped. I have tried iron traps and sn.ires and all sorts of devices, but could not succeed in fooling one of the wise little animals into getting caught by me until orte day a new idea struck me. It isn’t often you see a coon in the daytime i unless you know where to look for them. If there is a creek in your! vicinity in which crawfish are plenti- j ful you will be likely to discover some epicurean coon fishing for them if you hide at the side of the creek and keep very quiet.

“The coon is particularly fond of crawfish. The way he fishes forthem is to wade in the creek, generally going down-stream. The crawfish live under the stones on the bottom. The coon feels under each stone he comes to with his fore paws, thrusting one under one side and the other on the other side. It is a comical sight to see a coon fishing for crawfish. 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 concentrated on the business beneath the water. He draws the crawfish out of the water, and, standing on his hind feet, rolls it smartly between his paws. This crushes the shell and claws of the crawfish and makes the sweet meat more accessible. The poon eats his capture with great relish and then begins the search for another one. “While watching a coon fishing in this way one day I got the new idea of trapping for coons. I thought that by placing a steel trap udder the water in the creek where coons did their fishing they could be deceived and more th in likely caught. I tried the experiment I sank two traps at different places on a favorite crawfishing route for coons, and the same afternoon found p coon in each trap. And that is the pnly way you can trap a coon. “I often hear hunters talk about smoking 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 j of that kind, 1 don’t believe them. Coou ' I hunters in western Pennsylvania know i by long experience that there is only pne thing the smoke of which will! force a eoon to boat a retreat from his hollow tree. You* may burn leaves or straw till the cows come home, but .you won’t get your coon. 1 You can hear him sneezing every little I while like a man with the bay fever, > but that is all the effect the smoke will have on him. If you want to get your coon by smoking him out of the tree, , you must take what we call a sulphur match over in western Pennsylvania. The coon-hunting sulphur match is made by melting down a quantity of sulphur in a saucer and saturating a strip of muslin a few inches long and an inch or two wide in it When you run your coon into a hollow tree all you’ve got to do is to put your sujphur match at the bottom of the hole and light it It won’t be burning tea seconds before Mr. Coon will pop out' pf bis hollow as if he’d been shot from a catapult, and thea if you don’t get him it’s your fault