e latter part of the winter, during the warm spells,
I have found tracks in the snow and have followed the tracks for miles
as they visited other dens. The species is not strictly nocturnal, and I
have often seen coons sunning themselves on limbs and have also found
them on the ground feeding in the daytime. I once found a small one in
the water of a little brook, where it was nearly drowned and was
uttering a shrill, piteous cry. It had probably fallen from a log into
the stream.

The young grow slowly and generally stay with the parents until a year
old. They do not obtain their full growth until about the third year.
They vary much in size, weighing from 15 to 40 pounds. One caught near
Ann Arbor in November, 1905, weighed 30 pounds, and the blanket of fat
under the skin weighed five pounds. The heaviest Michigan raccoon known
to me was taken near Edmore, Montcalm County, May 10, 1904, and weighed
56 pounds.

The call is a shrill tremulo cry, almost like a whistle, and on a still
night may be heard for a long distance. When caught by a dog it
sometimes utters a snarling cry, from rage or pain. The color varies in
shades of gray and black, and we have a dozen records of white or albino
raccoons from this county, and half that number of black or melanistic
ones.

_Mustela pennantii pennantii._ Fisher.--Henry Wilson, an old pioneer of
Dexter, told me that he killed a large male in February, 1862, near
Independence Lake, Webster Township. Other old trappers report that it
has been taken in the county, but are not able to give exact data.

_Mustela noveboracensis noveboracensis._ New York Weasel.--This species
is quite commonly distributed over the county even now. One summer day
in Lodi Township I heard the excited squawking of a setting hen that was
confined in a box coop; on raising the cover the hen was seen to have a
weasel attached to her leg. With a stick I attempted to hit the weasel,
which was dragged about by the hen, but only succeeded in causing it to
run under a shed, from which place it soon stuck its head out of a hole.
I again tried to hit it with a stick, but it always dodged the blow.
Finally I went to the house for the gun, and when I returned found the
weasel out chasing the hen again. A shot soon finished it.

In this county only about 75 per cent of the weasels change to the white
coat in winter.

_Mustela vison mink._ Northeastern Mink.--In this county the mink has
been so closely trapped tha