26 The Woodchuck 



would be over and they would have to settle down 

 to the serious business of life, either finding a de- 

 serted burrow or digging one for themselves. It 

 would have been interesting could I have watched 

 the separation of this family and have known all the 

 circumstances leading up to it, but they "stole a 

 march" on me, and within a space of three days the 

 old burrow had but one occupant, the mother. 



Usually each woodchuck has a burrow by itself, 

 but occasionally a pair will live together through the 

 winter. Early in autumn I came upon such a pair 

 not far from the summer home which had so interested 

 me, and I pleased myself by imagining they were 

 two of my old friends. The spot they had selected 

 for their burrow was on a gentle sunny slope in one 

 corner of the meadow. They had evidently been 

 working, little by little, on the new burrow before 

 they left the old one, but now they made a regular 

 business of it and worked with a will. And rapid 

 progress they made, for their feet are armed with 

 powerful claws and there is a partial web between 

 the toes, a combination which makes a most excel- 

 lent pick and shovel. The fore feet are used princi- 

 pally for digging and the hind ones for throwing 

 backward the loosened earth and stones. 



For some distance from the entrance the burrow 



