52 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



Siffleur by the French ; and its peculiar form has earned for it 

 the somewhat inappropriate title of Ground Hog. 



The burrow of the Woodchuck is rather long, running to a dis- 

 tance of twenty or thirty feet from the entrance, which is almost 

 invariably placed under the shelter of a projecting rock, or on the 

 side of a hill. It descends obliquely for a few feet, and then rises 

 gradually toward the surface of the ground. At the extremity 

 of the burrow is placed the nest, which is a rounded chamber of 

 considerable dimensions. Here the young Woodchucks are born, 

 and here they remain until they are about five months old, when 

 they separate from each other, and begin an independent exist- 

 ence, each digging a small hole about a yard in depth. Many of 

 these little burrows are made and left unoccupied. Digging out 

 Woodchucks is a favorite amusement with boys. 



Our next example is the Canada Pouched Eat [Pseudostoma 

 bursarius), sometimes called the Gopher, or Mulo. 



This remarkable animal drives burrows of very great extent, 

 and whenever it gains admission into a garden, it works much 

 damage to the roots of the plants. Every root that crosses the 

 tunnel the Pouched Rat will eat; and not only herbs and flowers, 

 but even fruit trees of many years' growth have been killed by 

 this destructive animal. In such cases, the extremity of the bur- 

 row is always to be found among the roots of some tree, which 

 act at the same time as a defense and a larder ; for the Rat hides 

 itself under their protection, and eats away their tender shoots. 



Like the mole, the Gopher throws up little hillocks at irregular 

 intervals, sometimes twenty or thirty feet apart, and sometimes 

 crowded closely together. The nest of the Gopher is made in a 

 burrow constructed expressly for the purpose, and is placed in a 

 small globular chamber about eight inches in diameter. The bed 

 on which the mother and her young repose is made of dried herb- 

 age and fur plucked from the body. This chamber is the point 

 from which a great number of passages radiate, and from these 

 other tunnels are driven. These radiating burrows evidently 

 serve two purposes, enabling the animal to escape in any direction 

 when alarmed, and serving to conduct it to its feeding grounds. 



In two instances where the Gophers had entered a garden, their 

 tunnels were traced throughout the greater part of their extent, 

 and were found to be driven at an average depth of a foot or 

 eighteen inches below the surface, except when they crossed a 



