142 
MAMMALIA. 
ARCTOMYS MONAX (Linn.) Schreber. 
Woodchuck ; Marmot. 
The Woodchuck delights in the open meadows and rocky hill- 
sides that mark the possessions of the farmer, but has no love for 
the extensive evergreen forests that exist in districts remote from 
civilization. He is, therefore, of rare occurrence within the proper 
limits of the Adirondacks, though he has been found, sparingly, in 
the remotest parts of the Wilderness.* In the cultivated area 
surrounding the Adirondacks he is very abundant, and often 
proves a serious annoyance to the farmer. 
He is a strict vegetarian, feeding chiefly upon clover and grass. 
Only in rare instances does he enter the garden, and were it not 
for the size of his holes he could hardly be regarded as an enemy 
to the agriculturist. 
With us, the Woodchuck commonly lives in extensive burrows, 
excavated by himself, though he sometimes takes up his abode in 
rocky ledges, and in the hollow roots of large trees. During the 
summer season the greater number live in the open fields, gener- 
ally selecting good meadows where they are sure to be surrounded 
with a luxuriant growth of rich grass or clover, so that they can 
procure an abundance of the best of food without exposing them- 
selves to the clanger of wandering far from their holes. As the 
season for going into winter-quarters draws near, many of them 
retire to the groves and borders of woods near by and take posses- 
sion of other burrows which they occupy till late in the following 
spring. Some, indeed, leave the meadows immediately after the 
* To cite a few cases : June 12th, 1883, I saw a large Woodchuck in the Brown’s Tract road 
near the Ilellgate Lakes ; and later, on the same day, saw another between Third and Fourth 
Lakes of the Fulton Chain. I have also seen their holes between Upper and Lower Saranac 
Lakes, and in the side of a knoll between Morse Lake and Second Lake of North Branch, in which 
latter place E. L. Sheppard caught one in February or March, 1880. James Higby tells me that 
in the early part of July, 1878, he almost stepped on a full-grown and very fat Woodchuck on the 
portage between Seventh and Eighth Lakes, Fulton Chain. 
