Woodchuck 



of the woods — not an altogether inappropriate title, at least as 

 regards disposition. 



The real woodchuck of the woods, instead of spending his 

 days in the sunlit fields or open hard-wood groves and orchards, 

 digs his hole among the rocks and ledges, beneath the roots of 

 great hemlocks and pines, where the sun hardly penetrates and 

 the decaying tree trunks are crossed and tumbled against each 

 other overhead, supported and held in position by those that are 

 still standing. Here he scrambles about among the underbrush 

 and fallen branches, subsisting on berries and whatever green 

 stuff is to be had in its season, probably feeding on edible 

 mushrooms when they are to be obtained, like the partridges 

 and squirrels who are his associates. He may frequently be seen 

 of a summer afternoon stretched in the sun along some half 

 prostrate log, evidently glad to take advantage of whatever of the 

 sun's rays manage to penetrate among the shadows of his retreat. 

 Enjoying as he does comparative immunity from the attacks of 

 men and dogs, and having at the present day very few natural 

 enemies to avoid, he should, and in all probability often does, 

 live out his allotted time; and it is no uncommon thing to find 

 the bones of these animals in hollow logs and similar places, 

 showing no signs of having suffered a violent death. A careful 

 observer of Nature once told me that he had once seen a wood- 

 chuck, apparently very old and feeble, laboriously digging a shal- 

 low hole in the soft earth, and that on returning, some hours later, 

 he had discovered him curled up at the bottom of the hole quite 

 dead, undoubtedly having died of old age after digging his own 

 grave and crawling into it. He believed this to be a regular 

 custom with them, and said that he had met with a number 

 of people who asserted the same thing. 



In one respect the forest woodchuck does not have so easy 

 a time of it as his brethren who abide in the open country, 

 seldom attaining to such an extreme condition of corpulency, and 

 in consequence being compelled to awake and crawl out of bed 

 much earlier in the spring, often making his appearance when 

 the snow is still several feet deep. Such unfortunates are obliged 

 to worry along as best they can until warm weather, seeking 

 out the spots of bare earth beneath the evergreens and gnawing 

 ravenously at the bark of trees or anything that can possibly be 

 made to answer as a substitute for food. They are soon piti- 



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