Woodchuck

or Groundhog, an American animal of the ground squirrel family. It is found from Hudson Bay to South Carolina. The corresponding animal of the Western plains is the prairie dog, a much more attractive animal. Both are exaggerated editions of the ground squirrel or striped prairie "gopher." The woodchuck is heavily built, with a flabby, pouchy carcass, and has short, stout legs fitted for digging. It is about eighteen inches in length, with blackish or grizzled fur above and chestnut fur beneath. The woodchuck persists in closely settled communities, digging extensive burrows, preferably under a stone or beneath a wall. It has the gnawing teeth of a ground squirrel. Its food is entirely vegetable, consisting, where it can be had, chiefly of clover. Cabbages are welcome, though grass and field crops of all sorts do not come amiss.

The woodchuck is too short-legged to be much of a runner, and, like the ground squirrel, prefers not to be caught too far from its hole. When surprised in a clover field it makes for its hole at a pretty good pace, and pitches in headlong with a defiant chr-r-r, quite squirrel-like. Its den and surroundings have a distinct woodchuck odor. As it requires considerable food to maintain a woodchuck family, the proprietor is not a favorite on the farm. It is always considered legitimate to stop work to get out a woodchuck when the farm dog has cornered one in a pile of stones.

In the autumn the woodchuck puts on a layer of fat. About November he goes to sleep in his underground burrow below the limit of frost. In New England February 2d is called groundhog day. On this date the groundhog, so the saying runs, comes out and looks about. If he can see his shadow he retires and takes a six weeks' nap. A bright groundhog day betokens a late, wintry spring.

See Marmot; Prairie Dog; Chipmunk