Woodchuck 
fully thin and so active as hardly to be recognized by one familiar 
only with well-fed.summer specimens. 
Woodchucks are seldom seen in the open pasture until the 
snow has about disappeared and the turf begins to feel soft under 
foot, with green grass and clover starting up in sheltered places, 
while those of the cultivated grass lands are still later about 
showing themselves, so that it would certainly seem that the 
duration of their winter nap depended largely on the food supply 
of the preceding summer. Still it is just possible that all the 
woodchucks return to the woods to ‘‘den in,” in’ order to obtain 
a more even temperature than would be possible in the open 
ground. Instances of woodchucks having been unearthed in a 
state of hibernation in the winter are common enough, but 
whether in the woods or in the open appears uncertain. 
In the summer the rambler often meets little woodchucks 
only a few weeks old, wandering about the fields alone and 
unprotected, having been driven from their homes by their hard- 
hearted parents as soon as they were able to shift for them- 
selves. These little waifs are not apt to show any alarm on 
being approached, commonly settling back on their haunches and 
attempting to bite anything that comes within reach, or else 
charging savagely at the intruder, with little husky, gurgling 
cries of anger. An old woodchuck will occasionally attack the 
person who threatens him, sometimes it would seem even when 
he is not cornered or confined in any way. But this is nothing 
to the perfectly reckless courage with which the youngster en- 
ters into the combat, as if he felt perfectly sure that he were 
going to have an easy thing of tt. As soon, however, as he is 
quite convinced that you are not going to retreat, and that he 
is hardly likely to be able to dispose of you to his satisfaction, 
he starts off on a gallop, but as yet without any especial 
symptoms of fear, though if you persist in heading him off, he 
at last comes to realize that he is entirely at your mercy, and 
a wholly different expression comes into his eyes, he begins to 
tremble and shiver all over, and finally gives up all attempts to 
fight or run away, simply crouching in the grass in abject 
terror. 
I once obtained possession of a little woodchuck that had 
been brought home uninjured by a dog. If I remember rightly, 
the original price of the animal was thirteen cents, with a 
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