228 IN BERKSHIRE FIELDS 



chucks even to-day live on the fat of the land. A 

 neighbor of mine, who has a large orchard of dwarf 

 apple-trees, takes his rifle whenever he visits it, be- 

 cause the chucks are such pests, tunneling under 

 the very roots of the little trees and eating not only 

 the clover crop sowed between the rows, but also 

 the tender bark of the trees themselves. But, on the 

 other hand, I came upon an abandoned clearing .in 

 the woods the other day, where once, to be sure, a 

 house had stood, but where man had reaped not, 

 neither had he sown, for at least a generation — and 

 sitting on the mossy door-step of the vine-filled 

 cellar hole was a big woodchuck! He dove off at 

 my approach, and disappeared down his hole, not 

 twenty feet away. His was a considerable house, 

 there being three rear entrances instead of one, or 

 sometimes two, as is more common, and the total 

 length of the burrow must have been at least seventy- 

 five feet. There were no vegetables in this clear- 

 ing, and only a few wild apples — seedlings, no doubt, 

 from cultivated trees now long dead. The grass 

 was long, and little, clearly marked paths radiated 

 out from the mouths of the burrow in all directions 

 through it. Probably clover, berries, and, without 

 doubt, apples in autumn constituted the bulk of 

 this fellow's diet. 



There are still woodchucks, too, who live in the 

 real forest, frequently in hollow logs, though I have 

 found their holes again and again under a stone 

 beneath a big pine or hemlock, or under the net- 

 work of roots at the base of a huge hardwood. They 

 are much leaner and more active than their fellows 

 of the fields and pastures, for they get less food and 



