WOODCHUCKS. 



ERNEST C. ADAMS. 



Photos by the Author. 



If you should speak to a native of cen- 

 tral New York or Pennsylvania of an 

 American marmot, he would probably think 

 you did not know what you were talking 

 about. If you had an opportunity to poin! 

 out the animal in question he would tell you 

 it was nothing 1 but a common woodchuck, 

 or ground-hog, and it is not unlikely you 

 would hear him mutter a few words about 





sage. Though a woodchuck may have 2 

 or 3 burrows which he occupies at differ- 

 ent times in a year, there is never more 

 than one animal at a time in a burrow, ex- 

 cept the mother with her young. Some 

 wise old woodchucks show great sagacity 

 in the construction of their homes ; throw- 

 ing all the dirt out at one entrance, thus 

 leaving the other almost unobservable. Into 

 these holes they crawl in October, fat and 

 sleek as butchers' cats, to emerge 6 months 

 later, after having slept through the whole 

 winter, as thin as the proverbial rail and 

 with appetites that would do credit to farm 

 hands. During the winter months they do 

 not wake even for food, but are nourished 

 by the fat they have accumulated during 

 the summer. John Burroughs says, "Dig 

 one out during hibernation, as Audubon did, 

 and you find a mere inanimate ball, 

 that suffers itself to be moved and rolled 

 about without showing signs of awaking ; 

 but bring it in by the fire, and it presently 

 unrolls, opens its eyes and crawls feebly 

 about. If left to itself it will seek some 



EXPECTING CALLERS. 



the "pesky critter" as he went into the house 

 for his gun. 



The American marmot, or as he is better 

 known, the woodchuck, though by no means 

 so spry as his cousin the squirrel nor so 

 quick witted as "Molly Cottontail," the rab- 

 bit, is nevertheless a most interesting little 

 fellow. In appearance he is not strikingly 

 attractive. His body is short, thick, some- 

 what larger than that of a full grown cat, 

 and covered with coarse, red-brown, griz-* 

 zled fur. His legs are short, the fore feet 

 armed with long claws, which he uses in 

 digging his burrow and in defending him- 

 self. His head is round, pointed slightly at 

 the nose, and his bright, brown eyes are set 

 wide apart. 



He is a strict vegetarian in diet, eating 

 clover, apples, and tender leaves, preferably 

 young bean tops and pea vines, which has 

 made the farmer his dire enemy. The 

 woodchuck is a great coward unless cor- 

 nered, when he will often fight with such 

 fury as to rout animals greatly his superior 

 in size and strength. 



His home is but a hole burrowed in a 

 hillside. It has 2 entrances, one a few 

 feet lower than the other, to prevent his be- 

 ing drowned out by the spring rains. The 

 entire length of the burrow is seldom more 

 than is feet and is generally' a single pas- 



345 



BfelP^ "V 





^jS 









THINKING IT OVER. 



dark hole or corner, roll itself up and re- 

 sume its former condition." 



Last summer one of these creatures took 

 up his abode temporarily in the rocks near 

 my home in the Catskills. His hole was lit- 

 tle more than a slanting crevice in the 

 rocks ; a sort of natural cave about 7 feet 

 long with an opening at either end. A large 

 apple tree overhung his front door and kept 

 him well supplied with his favorite fruit. 

 He occupied this hole as a kind of summer 

 cottage during the apple season. Many 

 times I have watched within a few feet of 

 his door as he came haltingly out, eyeing 



