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 feels 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 
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