278 



Tlie America}! Atiglcr. 



Watch him. He is suspicious to a de- 

 gree. He runs along the ground in a 

 succession of clumsy jumps. A rod or 

 so has been traversed. Then he rises 

 in the air, squats upon his haunches, 

 thrusts his head forward and slowly 

 scans the surrounding country. 

 Cautiously he moves his head from one 

 side to the other. Those eyes although 

 small in size are keen. After 

 glinting over all, down go his front 

 feet to the ground and a run of another 

 rod or so is made. Up in the air goes 

 that head again. The examination is 

 satisfactory for he soon moves forward 

 once more. In this manner he reaches 

 the spot he has selected to breakfast. 

 He is a grass feeder, for the farmers' 

 proverb tells us that it costs as much 

 to sustain a well grown woodchuck as 

 it does to feed a sheep. Hence, the 

 country lads wage continual war upon 

 the animal, harmless as it is. 



The time for hunting him is short. 

 It takes many "breaths" of spring to 

 lure him from his Winter's sleep, while 

 the early frosts of Autumn send him 

 shivering to his burrow, despite his 

 warm coat. How is he to be sought for? 

 Let me tell you. Some prefer a small 

 bore rifle, say carrying a 32 bullet, 

 others say that there is nothing like a 

 Winchester repeating gun, a 44, carry- 

 ing a ball of 200 grains of lead, 

 impelled by a charge of 40 

 grains of powder. It is simply a 

 matter of taste. True, the larger ball 

 tears the skin to tatters, and makes a 

 very comfortable hole in the chuck's 

 body. It may not be as clean work as 

 that done by the 32 but while you hurt 

 the skin, you don't lose many by their 

 dodging back in their holes and thus 

 are lost to you. When that 200 grains 

 strikes one, it stops incontinently then 

 and there, for there is never a dodge 



left in him. , You needn't hurry to go 

 after him if he was hit, he will stay 

 right there, and you'll have plenty of 

 time to go after him without running 

 to pick him up, he simply stays where 

 he was put. 



Not so long ago a friend of mine, 

 Harry Fissenden, of this city, journey- 

 ed to New Hampshire for a week's 

 'chuck shooting. He is an ardent ad- 

 mirer of the 44-200 load and his success 

 is ordinarily great. Let me tell of 

 one of his latest. Starting early one 

 morning, he carried, besides his regular 

 impedimenta, a field glass. Reaching 

 the meadow some distance from where 

 he knew of a woodchuck's home, he 

 carefully scans the landscape, slowly 

 but surely the glass moves around the 

 horizon. At last he stops the move- 

 ment and gazes intently at one particu- 

 lar spot. Taking the glasses down 

 from his eyes, he carefully cleans the 

 lenses from the slightest atom of dust 

 and then once again looks long and 

 earnestly at a spot all of 250 yards 

 away. It moves at last and certainty 

 follows doubt. The glasses are put 

 down, the rifle taken up and loaded. 

 The little dark spot away off in the 

 distance is seen to move, then it assumes 

 larger proportions. The rifle is rested 

 against a convenient stone, the sight is 

 found. Presto! A puff, and the 

 brown spot drops out of veiw as the 

 rifle is taken from the shoulder. A 

 wait of a moment or so is had before 

 the advance is made. Then the inter- 

 vening distance is slowly passed ; with- 

 in two rods of its home lies the animal, 

 dead as any woodchuck that ever lipped 

 a four leafed clover stem. The wood- 

 chuck was an old one. Its hair on the 

 back was as gray in color as that of a 

 badger. On the belly it was a rich 

 red, as bright in hue as the rufous 



