66 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 



culture of our State. He is a gross feeder, devouring nearly as much clover 

 as a full-grown sheep ; he eats to give him strength to dig holes, and then he 

 digs holes to give him an appetite for more clover. He takes supreme de- 

 light in tearing the bark from young fruit trees, and will wipe out entirely 

 a good-sized bean patch in a day." 



No bounties appear to have been paid on this animal in Pa., though I 

 make bold to assert it annually steals incalculably more value in agricultural 

 products than the combined value of poultry, live stock, etc., which are 

 destroyed by beasts and birds of prey coming under the ban of law. The 

 fur of the wood chuck has no value, and very few are used for food, so that 

 there is almost nothing "in his hide" to compensate for such thievishness as 

 in the fox, mink, skunk, wildcat, and opossum. 



Description of species and measurements. — See under subspecies canadensis, 

 next considered. 



Northeastern Woodchuck or Ground Hog. Arctomys monax cana- 

 densis (Erxleben). 



1777. \_Glis'\ canadensis Erxleben, Systema Regni Animal, vol. i, p. 363. 



1898. Arctomys monax canadensis Allen, Bulletin American Museum 

 N. History, vol. 10, p. 456. 



Type locality. — Hudson Bay. 



Faunal distribution. — Canadian and Hudsonian life zones ; Newfoundland ; 

 west to Rocky Mts. ? 



Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Not found in N. J. The woodchuck of 

 the hmited Canadian areas of the northern Alleghenies may more properly 

 be classed with the dark race of the southern Hudson Bay region than with 

 the Maryland animal. This form is confined to the mountain tops of the 

 northern tier of counties. It is more essentially an inhabitant of the forested 

 lands, as contrasted with the habitat of monax. It is abundant. 

 Habits, etc. — See above, under monax. 



Description of species. — As no specimens of typical canadensis have been 

 described according to modern methods, I will take Bangs' description of 

 Arctomys ignavus from Labrador as a basis for comparison with monax, it 

 being probable that ignavus may properly become a synonym of canadensis. 

 This granted, the northeastern woodchuck is larger than monax and of a 

 dark grizzly gray, little varied with yellow or reddish tints, as in the latter 

 species. The difference in size is not great, amounting in the length of hind 

 foot to only ^ of an inch. 



Genus Sciuropterus F. Cuvier, Dents du Mammiferfes, 1825, p. 255. 

 Virginia Flying Squirrel. Sciuropterus volans (Linnseus). 



