Page:St. Nicholas (serial) (IA stnicholasserial321dodg).pdf/437



woodchuck is well known among the farmer boys and girls throughout the Middle and Eastern States, for he is as much a part of the farm as the brook or the orchard.

In form he is far from graceful, especially in the latter part of the summer, when the body becomes very fat and pouchy, The color of the fur varies from a reddish brown to a grizzled gray, or, occasionally, black. The teeth, like those of the squirrel and prairie-dog, are strong and well adapted for cutting.

His summer home is sometimes in a burrow, and sometimes in a wall or stone-heap. The woodchuck of the present day is rather inclined to desert the old home in the woods, where he fed upon tender bark and roots of various kinds, and become a dweller near the clover-patch in the field. lor this reason he has become a special object of persecution by the farmers, and a continual warfare is waged against him from early spring until fall; some are trapped, many are shot, and not a few are destroyed by the farm dogs.

The trap is set at the entrance of the burrow, being made fast to a stake which is driven into the ground. The woodchucks are more easily trapped in May or June than later in the season. Old ones frequently become very shy, especially those living in meadows remote from the house and having their burrows in the edge of the woods or bushes near by. Sometimes one of these woodchucks will spring a trap day after day without being caught; or even dig around the trap, much to the disgust of the farmer-boy, who is usually paid a bounty of ten cents for each “chuck” caught. Occasionally the farm dog develops considerable ability in capturing them.

There is no animal that exerts less energy in the course of a year than the woodchuck. He feeds upon the best in the meadow and occasionally in the garden, being very fond of the juicy peas and beans and tender lettuce. Then as winter comes on he forgets all care and worry, crawls into his burrow, and like the bear, falls asleep, not to awaken till Spring.

The cubs usually number four or five, and the date of their birth is not far from the tenth of May, The snug little chamber in which they are born is located two or three feet under the ground and contains a small bed of dry grass gathered the fall before.

The woodchuck family best known to me was the one that lived by the old rail fence just back of the orchard on my father’s farm. The mother Rh