Woodchuck 421 



going perhaps a mile or more, before it finds a location that suits 

 its taste and is without an occupant of its own tribe. 



This is the only migration known among the Woodchucks; migra- 

 it may occur at any time of the day or night, or at any season 

 except in winter. 



In the grounds about my house the species is well repre- 

 sented, but I never see a Woodchuck two years in suc- 

 cession at the same hole. A new den each year seems to be 

 their plan of life — an annual, doubtless a spring, moving. 



As will be seen, the existence of the Woodchuck depends burrow 

 on its den or burrow. This is either in the woods or on the ' 

 rolling pastures, but by preference on the border land between. 

 Two principal types are described^ by Merriam ; "the first 

 slopes at a moderate angle from the surface, and has a mound 

 of dirt near its entrance; the other is more or less vertical for 

 several feet * * * immediately below the surface, and no 

 loose earth can be found in its neighbourhood." 



These two I have often examined. The difference is that, 

 that with the earth pile was dug from the surface down ; that with- 

 out earth pile was dug from another burrow up to the surface. 



The best descriptions of Woodchuck burrows that I 

 know of are by W. H. Fisher, of Cincinnati, Ohio. My own 

 observations, as far as they go, corroborate those of Fisher; 

 therefore I shall give a digest of his admirable paper. ^ 



In all, he investigated 9 burrows between September 20 

 and October 10, though not all in the same year. One of the 

 simplest styles is shown in Excavation I (Fig. 125), the most 

 complex in H. He does not say whether these were the work 

 of families or of solitary males, of recent make or old. 



The longest was H; it gave a total length, including all 

 galleries, of 47 feet, ii| inches. The shortest was I; its total 

 length was 6 feet, 8| inches. The deepest point reached by any 



* Mam. Adir., 1884, p. 246. 



'Investigations of the Burrows of the American Marmot (Arclomys tnonax), by 

 WiUiam Hubbell Fisher, Cincinnati, Ohio, U. S. A. From the journal of the Cincinnati 

 Society of Natural History, July-October, 1893. Vol. XVI, pp. 105-123. Plates VI 

 to X. 



