178 NOTES BY THE WAY. 



tary in its habits, seldom more than one inhabiting 

 the same den, unless it be a mother and her young. 

 It is not now so much a wood chuck as afield chuck. 

 Occasionally, however, one seems to prefer the woods, 

 and is not seduced by the sunny slopes and the suc- 

 culent grass, but feeds, as did his fathers before him, 

 upon roots and twigs, the bark of young trees, and 

 upon various wood plants. 



One summer day, as I was swimming across a 

 broad, deep pool in the creek in a secluded place in 

 the woods, I saw one of these sylvan chucks amid the 

 rocks but a few feet from the edge of the water 

 where I proposed to touch. He saw my approach, 

 but doubtless took me for some water-fowl, or for 

 some cousin of his of the musk-rat tribe ; for he went 

 on with his feeding, and regarded me not till I paused 

 within ten feet of him and lifted myself up. Then 

 he did not know me, having, perhaps, never seen 

 Adam in his simplicity, but he twisted his nose 

 around to catch my scent ; and the moment he had 

 done so he sprang like a jumping-jack and rushed 

 into his den with the utmost precipitation. 



The woodchuck is the true serf among our animals ; 

 he belongs to the soil, and savors of it. He is of the 

 earth, earthy. There is generally a decided odor 

 about his dens and lurking places, but it is not at all 

 disagreeable in the clover-scented air, and his shrill 

 whistle, as he takes to his hole or defies the farm dog 

 from the interior of the stone wall, is a pleasant sum- 

 mer sound. In form and movement the woodchucb 



