The Crab-eating Racoon (_Procyon cancrivorus_) is a South American species, differing from the foregoing chiefly in the shortness of its fur, and its consequently slender shape. It is a far less handsome animal than its North American relative, which it resembles very closely both in structure and in habits. THE COATI.[157] The Coati is an animal of far less attractive appearance than the Racoon. The body is proportionally longer, the limbs are short, and the snout of a remarkable length and very pig-like: in fact, the head of a Coati reminds one strongly of that of a small dark-coloured Pig pulled out until the muzzle was two or three times its ordinary length. The snout is, moreover, very flexible, and the animal perpetually turns it about in various directions in a highly inquisitive way. The body is somewhat over half a yard in length, the tail a little shorter. [Illustration: COATI.] The fur is short and of a reddish or greyish-brown colour, the muzzle and feet are black, the tail ringed with black and brownish-yellow. Like the Racoon, it feeds upon fruit, insects, small birds, &c., and, like it, is a good climber. The specimens in the Zoological Gardens are in a constant state of activity, trotting about from one end of the cage to another, climbing over the tree trunk placed in their prison, and turning their queer-looking snouts about ceaselessly. The geographical range of the Coati extends from Mexico in the north to Paraguay in the south. THE KINKAJOU.[158] Looking merely at the exterior of this animal, one would almost feel inclined to place it, as some of the earlier naturalists did, among the Lemurs: for, like them, it has a prehensile tail, one which can be coiled around branches to help its progress, precisely like that of a New World Monkey. It will be remembered that one member of the Civet family, the Binturong (p. 95), presents a similar peculiarity. But the Binturong’s tail is a comparatively imperfect organ, merely prehensile at the tip, while that of the Kinkajou can be readily coiled two or three times round a branch. We thus see that the same remarkable adaptation to arboreal life which is found in the whole group of New World Monkeys appears in one species from each of two distinct families of Carnivores, one of which is confined to the Old World, while the other exists only in the New World. And we shall see the same character crop up once more, when we come to the group of pouched animals (Marsupials), in the American Opossums. It must, of course, be clearly understood that the possession of a prehensile tail is no sign whatever of any relationship between the animals possessing it. It may be taken as certain that it was produced quite separately in all the four cases we have mentioned in relation to the habits of the animal. [Illustration: SKULL OF KINKAJOU.]