l8 OMENSETTER : 



place on the approach of frosty weather and comes out about 

 the first of April. 



The animal in different sections known either as ground 

 hog, woodchuck or Maryland marmot (Arctomys vionax), with 

 astonishing regularity and precision, and utterly regardless of 

 the state of the weather or condition of his food supply, sinks 

 into his burrow about the middle of October, and reappears 

 early in March or some time in February. It frequenth', 

 indeed, usually happens that the time chosen for entering upon 

 the practice of this singular habit is during fine, warm weather 

 and at a time when the fields are clothed with a luxuriant 

 growth of his favorite food, clover. In fact, the woodchuck 

 retires to the cold, dark recesses of his cheerless, subearthly 

 abode to commence a period of voluntary seclusion, to enter a 

 state of complete oblivion and absolute lethargy, at the very 

 time when one would naturally suppose he would most enjoy 

 himself above ground. That the ground hog, like the pro- 

 phets of old, may be without honor in his own locality, can 

 be surmised from the following complaint by an unapprecia- 

 tive farmer : 



" He is a gross feeder, devouring nearly as much as a full 

 grown sheep ; he eats to give him strength to dig holes, and 

 then he digs holes to give him an appetite for more clover. 

 He takes supreme delight in tearing the bark from young 

 fruit trees, and will wipe out entirely a good sized bean patch 

 in a day. He will make truck gardening impossible in many 

 localities, and his subterraneous excavations make it danger- 

 ous to drive teams over our fields. It is said that he hiber- 

 nates in Winter and ceases for a time to follow his damaging 

 occupation, but it would seem that he simply retires where he 

 can spend the long Winter months in making diagTams for 

 new and more extended operations for the coming season. 

 Whether or not he could be domesticated and educated so as 

 to be utilized in promoting subirrigation and laying drain 

 tile is an unexplored field for scientific investigation." 



One of our most familiar folk lore tales refers to the species 



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