Woodchuck 



are often killed with shotguns, though this is no easy matter 

 to accomplish; for though not a difficult animal to approach, 

 the skin of an old one is pretty nearly a quarter of an inch thick, 

 and the bones of the head are so solid that it requires the heaviest 

 kind of shot and a gun that carries close and hard at ordinary 

 shooting range to injure him. The majority of those that are killed are 

 caught in steel traps at the mouth of their burrows. As soon as the 

 woodchuck fr*\s the grip of the trap on his foot, he settles back 

 into his den and pulls with an amount of strength that is simply 

 surprising, and often secures his liberty. If unable to free himself 

 in this manner, he usually digs away the earth and blocks up the 

 entrance of the hole with himself inside, and the owner of the 

 trap is obliged to dislodge him as best he may. This is hard enough 

 when the victim is a woodchuck, but if, as often happens, it 

 proves to be a skunk, the result is truly disastrous. If left in 

 the trap for any length of time, the woodchuck frequently re- 

 leases himself by biting off his foot just below the jaws of the 

 trap, but is less extravagant and wasteful in this matter than the 

 muskrat, who not uncommonly leaves half an inch or more of 

 leg sticking up above the trap, apparently gnawing it off wher- 

 ever it is easiest and most convenient. 



This is the woodchuck of the fields and cultivated lands. 

 Many woodchucks, however, prefer to dwell in the pastures, 

 where the grass is shorter and sweeter and they are less likely 

 to arouse the ire of the owner of the land. Here they are ob- 

 liged to wander farther afield in order to satisfy their appetites, 

 but are generally in good condition for all that, and never appear 

 to have any trouble in laying on a sufficient supply of fat dur- 

 ing the summer to carry them over the cold season. In the 

 pastures they are fond of sunning themselves on top of old 

 stumps and smooth bowlders, the colour of their fur serving to 

 make them comparatively inconspicuous when so engaged. 



Then there is the woodchuck of the forest and woodlands, 

 who really deserves the name of woodchuck, as it was in all 

 probability first applied to the species by the early settlers- 

 chuck or chucky, I believe, being a term frequently used in De- 

 vonshire and other English farming districts to designate little 

 pigs, who were sometimes spoken of as barnyard chuckies; so 

 that woodchuck might very properly be translated as little pig 



'54 



