S.Z'i: 



ears are large, rounded, thinly haired, generally gray, but varying in the 

 darker specimens to brownish-gray, passing into black at the extremi- 

 ties. Tail full, rounded, and bushy, with the hairs generally considera- 

 bly less than half the length of the head and body. Specimens from the 

 same locality vary greatly in color, the gray above from whitish to yel- 

 lowish, the black from brownish-black to pure black, and the fulvous 

 from pale to yellowish. The abundant soft under fur is black or dusky 

 at base, then fulvous, passing into brownish-fulvous. Young specimens 

 are much lighter colored than adults, and the pelage generally thinner. 



Habits and Habitat. — The Woodchuck is a strictly herbivorous animal. 

 Of cultivated crops it is particularly fond of peas and clover, sometimes 

 making its burrow in a clover field. It is also foud of corn and other 

 grain, leaves and buds. It naturally inhabits woods, as the Spermophiles 

 do open prairies ; like these it leaves its burrows with great caution, and 

 only for a short distance. Although burrowing at times in open fields, 

 its favorite resort is in wooded rocky bluffs along the banks of streams ; 

 often it burrows under logs, brush heaps, or old fences. It produces from 

 four to six young in the early part of summer ; these leave the mother 

 before fall, dig their burrows, and shift for themselves. They are not 

 gregarious; they hibernate through the winter. Mr. Kennicott, from 

 whose writings this account of their habits is mainly dra.wn, states that 

 he has often found a number of them taking refuge in hollow trees, enter- 

 ing a hole at the ground, and climbing up the cavity after the manner of 

 the gray rabbit. Their gait is a series of short and awkward jumps, much 

 like that of a clumsy pig ; a man can readily overtake them. They are 

 cautious while feeding, often standing erect, with out-stretched neck, on 

 the alert for danger. 



The fur is of no value; the hide is tough, and used for lashes, pouches, 

 and thongs among the backwoodsmen. 



Mr. Kennicott states that when fat, which they usually are in autumn ^ 

 Woodchucks are esteemed by some good eating. Such an one, I take it, 

 was Thoreau's Canadian woodchopper, " a true Homeric or Paphlagonian 

 man," he tells us, who " can hole fifty posts a day, and make his supper 

 on a woodchuck which his dog caught." "Frequently he would leave 

 his dinner in the bushes, when his dog had caught a woodchuck by the 

 way, and go back a mile and a half to dress it, and leave it in the cellar 

 of the house where he boarded. He was so gentle and unsophisticated 

 that no introduction would serve to introduce him, more than if you in- 

 troduced a woodchuck to your neighbor." 



How this Walden neighbor cooked his Woodchuck, Thoreau does not 



