MAMMALIA. 
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occasionally take a more elevated view of the earth. Concerning 
these “tree-climbing Woodchucks” I quote from an article on 
the subject that I once wrote for Forest and Stream: — 
“ Woodchucks,, when unmolested, and particularly during their 
youthful days, often climb up ten or twelve feet in shrubbery 
and young trees that abound in low branches, and not infrequently 
scramble up the trunks of large trees which have partially fallen or 
slant sufficiently to insure them against slipping. Occasionally, 
especially when hard pressed by a fast approaching enemy, they 
ascend large erect trees whose lowest branches are some distance 
from the ground. But, in order to do this, they must take 
advantage of the impetus of a rush, for they cannot start slowly 
upon the trunk of an upright tree and climb more than a few feet 
without falling. Neither can they stop and go on again before 
reaching a branch or other resting place.”* 
In the American Naturalist for September, 1 88 1 (pp. 737-738), 
the Hon. Charles Aldrich, of Webster City, Iowa, writes : “ About 
two years ago a young man who was living with me, came in one 
day saying that he had just seen a small animal, possibly a raccoon, 
ascending a tree in the woods some sixty rods away. Taking my 
shot-gun, I went to the place, where I soon saw the creature in the 
top of a black oak tree, almost forty feet from the ground. The 
animal seemed very cunning, and managed for some time to keep 
on the opposite side of some of the larger limbs, but I finally got 
a shot at him. He came to the ground with a bounce, when I 
found it was a woodchuck. It was but slightly wounded in one of 
the fore legs, and I captured it and took it home. I put it in a 
hollow tree near my residence, and it remained there a couple of 
weeks, freely eating the corn which I regularly fed it.” 
As a rule the Woodchuck manifests great antipathy for water. 
In confinement he rarely partakes of it, and in the wild state his 
burrows are frequently so remote from it as to preclude the idea 
* Forest and Stream, Vol. XVI, No. 23, July 7, 1881, p. 453. 
