Barking up the wrong tree

[nq:1]Have we ever discussed "barking up the wrong tree"? The derivation was given today in a BBC radio quiz (although it was a question set by a listener) as coming from Raccoon hunting, when the hunting dogs could pick the wrong tree in the dark.[/nq]
Not that it makes a difference, but no one that ever does it would call it "raccoon hunting" here. It's "**** hunting". And, I have been ****

[nq:2]Have we ever discussed "barking up the wrong tree"? The ... hunting dogs could pick the wrong tree in the dark.[/nq]
[nq:1]Personally, I would doubt that any **** dog would pick the wrong tree. They hunt by smell. A **** will ... and the dog may stay with the first tree if the branches overlap, but they wouldn't pick the wrong tree.[/nq]
All the more force to the expression 'barking

Brewer's has that; but whether as "phrase" or "fable" I don't know. My Oxford Brewer's clone makes no mention of raccoons, on the other hand. I remember seeing a Walt Disney film as a boy in which a dog was brought up by a family of raccoons: Disney trumps Brewer's any time, in my book, so I should think that clinches it.
I doubt a dog's scenting skill, lacking a radar supplement, is much use

[nq:1]Not that it makes a difference, but no one that ever does it would call it "raccoon hunting" here. It's ... conversation, and "****" is almost universal. Zookeepers and newspaper articles may be the only sources for seeing or hearing "raccoon".[/nq]
This varies by region. In places I've lived, where they weren't hunted, but rather were seen as household pests (Chicago and the Bay Area),

[nq:2]Not that it makes a difference, but no one that ... may be the only sources for seeing or hearing "raccoon".[/nq]
[nq:1]This varies by region. In places I've lived, where they weren't hunted, but rather were seen as household pests (Chicago ... seen as a Southernism. But it's still "**** hunting" and "**** dog". Both of which are associated with the South.[/nq]
[nq:2]"Opossum" is in

[nq:2]Not that it makes a difference, but no one that ... may be the only sources for seeing or hearing "raccoon".[/nq]
[nq:1]This varies by region. In places I've lived, where they weren't hunted, but rather were seen as household pests (Chicago ... seen as a Southernism. But it's still "**** hunting" and "**** dog". Both of which are associated with the South.[/nq]
Again, we get into "Wh

[nq:2]This varies by region. In places I've lived, where they ... "**** dog". Both of which are associated with the South.[/nq]
[nq:1]The opossum has become a useful experimental animal for the study of nervous system development, because many of the developmental ... this marsupial. I have never heard any of the scientists who study the opossum refer to it as a "possum".[/nq]
I should hav

[nq:2]This varies by region. In places I've lived, where they ... "**** dog". Both of which are associated with the South.[/nq]
[nq:1]Again, we get into "What is the South?"[/nq]
Places people speak (or are imagined to speak) with Southern accents, of course.
[nq:1]**** hunting is a big thing in Indiana and Kentucky. People travel to both states to buy **** dogs. Tennessee is also know

[nq:2]The opossum has become a useful experimental animal for the ... who study the opossum refer to it as a "possum".[/nq]
[nq:1]I should have written "Zookeepers, newspapers, and scientists that study the nervous system of marsupials." You say you've never heard ... that you are in frequent communication with scientists that study marsupials and have had numerous opportunities to notice the

[nq:2]Personally, I would doubt that any **** dog would pick ... the branches overlap, but they wouldn't pick the wrong tree.[/nq]
[nq:1]All the more force to the expression 'barking up the wrong tree' then. And the expression *is* 'barking', not 'picking'. ... otherwise hounds would never drop the scent of their prey and would always succeed in tracking it. Which they don't.[/nq]
I'll go