THE WOODCIIUCK. 



Pacific slope, burrowing near the snow line. It is 

 more social or gregarious than the American 

 living in large families like our prairie-do In the 

 Middle and Eastern States our woodchuck takes the 

 place, in some respects, of the English rabbit, burrow- 

 ing in every hillside and under every stone wall and 

 jutting ledge and large bowlder, from winner it mat 

 raids upon the grass and clover and smin times upon 

 the garden vegetables. It is quite solitary in fa 

 habits, seldom more than one inhabiting the Bame 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 succulent 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 ^ 

 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 ray approach, but doubt- 

 less took me for some water-fowl, or for some cousin 

 of his of the rauskrat tribe ; for he went on with hi- 

 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 hif 

 simplicity, but he twisted his nose around to eat el 1 my 

 scent ; and the moment he had done so he sprang like 

 a jumping-jack and rushed into his den with the ut- 

 most precipitation. 



The woodchuek 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 



