NOTES BY THE WAY. 177 



yet learned that it could get in its hole sooner if it 

 had no tail ? The mole and the meadow mouse 

 have very short tails. Rats, no doubt, put their 

 tails to various uses. The rabbit has no use for 

 a tail it would be in its way ; while its manner 

 of sleeping is such that it does not need a tail to tuck 

 itself up with, as do the 'coon and the fox. The dog 

 talks with his tail ; the tail of the 'possum is pre- 

 hensile; the porcupine uses his tail in climbing and 

 for defense ; the beaver as a tool or trowel ; while 

 the tail of the skunk serves as a screen behind which 

 it masks its terrible battery. 



THE WOODCHUCK. 



WRITERS upon rural England and her familiar 

 natural history make no mention of the marmot or 

 woodchuck. In Europe this animal seems to be con- 

 fined to the high mountainous districts, as on our 

 Pacific slope, burrowing near the snow line. It is 

 more social or gregarious than the American spe- 

 cies, living in large families like our prairie dog. In 

 the Middle and Eastern States our woodchuck takes 

 the place, in some respects, of the English rabbit, 

 burrowing in every hill-side and under every stone 

 wall and jutting ledge and large bowlder, from whence 

 it makes raids upon the grass and clover and some- 

 times upon the garden vegetables. It is quite soli 

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