26 The Woodchuck 
would be over and they would have to settle down 
to the serious business of life, either finding a de- 
serted burrow or digging one for themselves. It 
would have been interesting could I have watched 
the separation of this family and have known all the 
circumstances leading up to it, but they “stole a 
march” on me, and within a space of three days the 
old burrow had but one occupant, the mother. 
Usually each woodchuck has a burrow by itself, 
but occasionally a pair will live together through the 
winter. Early in autumn I came upon such a pair 
not far from the summer home which had so interested 
me, and I pleased myself by imagining they were 
two of my old friends. The spot they had selected 
for their burrow was on a gentle sunny slope in one 
corner of the meadow. They had evidently been 
working, little by little, on the new burrow before 
they left the old one, but now they made a regular 
business of it and worked with a will. And rapid 
progress they made, for their feet are armed with 
powerful claws and there is a partial web between 
the toes, a combination which makes a most excel- 
lent pick and shovel. The fore feet are used princi- 
pally for digging and the hind ones for throwing 
backward the loosened earth and stones. 
For some distance from the entrance the burrow 
