160 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
left in this country. They are just as good as squir- 
rel, and I don’t believe they are any relation to 
dogs.’ a? 
Since the citation above was written the pub- 
lic suppressive measures taken in Kansas have 
reduced the pest to negligible proportions ex- 
cept in the remote northwestern counties. 
The woodchucks. These large ground-squir- 
rels bridge the gap between the true squirrels 
and the marmots, as they are’called in the Old 
World, known to us ‘‘woodchucks’’ or ‘‘ ground- 
hogs.’’ They are stout, short-legged, inactive 
animals, with short tails and closely appressed 
ears, whose dense fur is grizzled gray, in- 
clined to chestnut or blackish, and whose habits 
are distinctly terrestrial. Our eastern wood- 
chuck is found everywhere east of the Plains 
in all open woodlands, prairies or cultivated 
regions, for he thrives in the midst of civil- 
ization, whose cleared fields are to his liking, 
while he is furnished an abundance of food 
by the raising of field and garden crops. 
Few animals are so familiar to the country 
boy, who early becomes acquainted with its 
burrows in the hillsides, but rarely has the 
