THE MAMMALS OF NEW JERSEY. 79 



This is a common species in the northern counties of the State, 

 i. e., north of Mercer and Middlesex, though often local. In these 

 counties, according to Air. Rhoads, it is not common,^ and south- 

 ward it is very rare or casual. Mr. Rhoads mentions occurrences 

 of single individuals at Medford, Mt. Laurel, Haddonfield, Ash- 

 land, Greenwich, Tuckerton, Egg Harbor and Salem, and only 

 six of these later than 1890. Mr. H. Walker Hand writes me 

 that he still hears of one taken now and then in the Cedar Swamps 

 of Upper Cape May County. A significant point about all these 

 south Jersey records" is that they lie around the Pine Barrens, 

 either or west of this region, but not in it. The excessively sandy 

 character of south Jersey is perhaps not suitable to this species, at 

 any rate it is far more at home in the hilly country and on the 

 slopes of the Kittatiny Mountains. 



The groundhog is a familiar feature of an upland farm, the 

 large holes leading to its subterranean retreat, and the pile of 

 earth beside them are to be seen here and there over the meadows, 

 or along the fence rows, and occasionally even in woodland. Fre- 

 quently, too, the groundhog may be seen nearby standing upright 

 on his hind legs in true Marmot fashion, and then as you ap- 

 proach he is down on all fours and scuttling for his burrow as 

 hard as he can go. He comes out to feed early in the morning 

 or late in the afternoon, cropping the grass and herbs and nibbling 

 at apples and other fruit that lie scatered on the ground. He 

 often climbs up on an old rail fence and lies there basking in the 

 sun, and on rare occasions I have seen them in small trees some 

 eight or ten feet from the ground, but what the object of such a 

 climb might be I failed to discover. The main objects in life of 

 the groundhog seem to be eating and digging, and in neither re- 

 spect does he benefit the farmer upon whose land he may take up 

 his abode. 



Unlike the muskrat his hide is coarse and of no value. 



Aoctomys monax Abbott, Cook's Geol. of N. J., 1868, p. 757. — 

 Abbott, A Naturalist's Rambles, 1885, p. 450. — Rhoads, Proc. 

 Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1897, p. 29. — Rhoads, Mam. Pa. and N. 

 J., 1903, p. 63. 



