1866. ■ 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
391 
The Woodchuck.— (-i''<''t""y'^ jno;i<w). 
"We present our readers this month engrav- 
ings of two more of our fjimiliar native quadru- 
peds. The ■\Voodchuck has a very wide ge- 
ograpliical range North and South, and west- 
ward probahly as for as the Mississippi. The 
marmot of Europe, and the prairie dog of the 
western plaius,arc 
animals of the 
same genus (Arc- 
ioinys,) and of sim- 
ilar habits. The 
woodcliuck is IG 
to 18 inches long, 
with a solid robust 
body, broad head, 
short, rounded 
ears, bright prom- 
inent blaclc eyes, 
numerous whis- 
kers, and short 
legs with long 
claws. The fur is 
short and woollv, 
and sprinkled full 
of coarse hairs. It 
varies much iu 
color, being gray, 
inclining to red- 
dish and brown, 
ashy-gray upon _ -S Z 
the nose and ^ "^^ 
throat, usually 
grayest upon the 
shoulders, and reddish-brown on the legs and 
pate. Woodcliucks live in pairs in burrows, 
which are generally made in light saudy or al- 
luvial land, the animals preferring the neigh- 
borhood of cultivated fields and fruit-orchards, 
where the damage a single family will do in 
one summer, is considerable. "When undisturb- 
ed, the fields, even of a small farm, will often 
become in a few 
years filled with 
the burrows and 
tenanted by hun- 
dreds of wood- 
chucks. They ex- 
cavate chambers 
below the reach 
of frost, and store 
up clover heads, 
apples, and other 
food not liable to 
decay, for the 
winter's use. They 
are rather difficult 
to catch, for, be- 
ing chiefly noc- 
turnal, it is quite 
inconvenient to 
watch 'the traps. 
Steel traps are 
generally used, 
and set iu the 
entrances to their 
holes and covered 
with earth, or 
baited with sweet 
apples. If caught 
by the head or body, they are secure; but if caught 
by one leg, they will gnaw it off, and lookout for 
traps thereafter. We doubt not there are thous- 
ands of three-legged woodchucks alive and well 
about the country. The burrows are so long and 
deep, usually being in a bank, that it is hard to 
dig them out, and there are always, in our ex- 
perience, two entrances. The yovmg are peculiar 
sage-looking little fellows, and well represented 
in the engraving. Taken young, they arc easily 
domesticated, and become very tame, affec- 
tionate, and exhibit considerable intelligence. 
The flesh of the "Woodchuck, though coarse, 
is palatable, and if taken in the autumn, fat and 
juicy. The fur has little value, as it lacks beautj', 
but makes very comfortable mittens, tippets, etc. 
WOODCHCCK— (jlj'Ctomj/s monax.) 
The Musquash.— (?W«r sHethicus.) 
The Musquash, or Muskrat as it is often call- 
ed, is another peculiarly American an im".l, which 
is so well known as scarcely to require descrip- 
tion. It is also very widely distributed over the 
United States, frequenting alike land bordering 
upon salt and fresh water, choosing swamps 
MUsqtJASH — (FWer zibethima.) 
with dry sandy banks, or earth embankments, 
in which it burrows. It is 10 to 13 inches 
long, with a thick set body and arching back; 
head short, but rat-like, and the gnawing or 
front teeth very large, long, and powerful. The 
hind feet are very long, and a short web is found 
only between the two longest toes, yet the ani- 
mals are rapid and strong swimmers. The tail 
of the musquash is "compressed vertically," 
that is, it is flat, the edges being above and be- 
low. The beaver, which tlie musquasli greatly 
resembles in its hal^its, and which is naturally 
close akin to it, has a broad horizontally flat 
tail. Like the beaver, the musquash builds dome- 
like houses in the swamps, and plasters tliem 
well with mud on the inside, so that they turn 
the rain, while 
outside they look 
simply liiie a heap 
of sticks and 
reeds. The fur is 
valuable, and is 
chiefly exported. 
The skins, which, 
a few years since 
sold for 18 to 25 
cents eacli, now 
bring $1. They 
arc taken for tho 
fur in fall and 
iu early spring. 
Freshets in the 
streams, or extra- 
ordinarily high 
tides, drive tliese 
animals from their 
holes, and then 
they are easily 
shot, clubbed, or 
speared. They eat 
the roots of aqua- 
' ^^' tic plants. Cala- 
mus, Pond Lilies, 
etc., and are very fond of fresh-water shell-fish, 
especially of the TJnio. So far as their food 
goes, they do the farmers little damage ; but 
wherever embankments are made to shut out 
the tides, or canals are dug to convey streams to 
mills or for irrigation, or dams are erected, there 
the muskrats do great damage by burrowing 
through tho embankments just below the sur- 
face of the water, 
and causing leaks. 
We gave on page 
2.53, (.July), de- 
scriptions of traps 
for taking musk- 
rats, which are 
said to be very ef- 
fective, but most 
persons rely upon 
the fowling piece, 
and a war of ex- 
termination iu 
times of high wa- 
ter. In the win- 
ter time they are 
rarely seen upon 
land, except close 
about their breath- 
ing holes in the 
ice; but their food 
and the entrance 
to their burrows 
and houses being 
both below water, 
they get along 
very well, except 
in times of severe 
cold and little snow, when the entrances to their 
holes freeze up, and in times of flood, as already 
mentioned. — The name Muskrat is obviously 
derived from the strong odor of musk, which 
comes from glands near the tail. Musquash is 
said to Ije the Indian name, and is preferable, 
for the animal is not a rat in any proper sense, 
but, so to speak, a beaver on a small scale. 
