St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-01-06
THE WooDCHUCK's BURRoW.
Ending in Spacious Living
Room Thirty Feet From the En-

Ending in Spacious Living
Room Thirty Feet From the En-
trance.
Many years ago, during my boyhood
days, which were mostly spent in happy
old New England, did my share of
both shooting and trapping wood
chucks, and even helped eat roasted
one on an occasion, says writer in
Forest and Stream. But [ also Gid m ore
than this, for several times | had them
as pets, and closely studied their habits
in nature and in confinement.
Through some parts of the state of
Connecticut it would be hard to pick
out clover field of any size that did
not have WoOdchuck burrOW in some
part of it. Sometimes they choose a
site somewhere under the stone wall
which surrounds the field; or if there is
large rock, as is often the case, any
|. where about the middle of the field the
animal will burIoW under this as very
choice location.
Finally the roots of an old apple OF
other tree are often chosen for its
stronghold, the burrow being dug down
among them, the owner seeming to pos
Sess realizing sense that nc one would
him for such quarters. AS is the case
with the excavation made for their
habitati0ns by most fossorlal man.
mails, the burrow of wood
chuck at first descends obIiquely into
the earth, then passes nearly horizon
tally for several feet, rises moderately
for the last half of its length to termi-
nate in quite spacious and round
chamber, which constitutes the Giving
room of the entire family. In it the fe-
male brings forth her litter, and the
young remain there until they pair off
and dig their own homes elsewhere.
Such burrow may be at least thirty
feet in length-so long that one never
thinks of digging a Woodchuck out-but
l. have seen farmers bring up two or
three barrels of water on cart and
drown the occupants of this subter-
ranean establishment at short notice,
and rejoice most heartily if the pair,
grown young, are caught at the
same time. Very often I have cap
tured them in steel traps set at
the mouth of the burrow, taking the
precaution to sprinkle it all carefully
over with fine dirt. One old wood
chuck, l remember. constructed his
burrow almost in the center of a twenty
acre clover lot, and every attempt to
capture HIM in any kind of a trap ut
terry failed. 1t was the rarest thing in
the world to even catch him standing
up at the entrance of his bur
row during the day, but frequent
ly we would see him just head and
shoulders out of it. 1t seems to me
must have fired thirty or forty times at
him under such circumstances from the
outer side of the stone wall which sur
rounded the field, and that, too, with a
heavy old fashioned muzzle-loading
Kentucky rifle, which at seventy-fve to
one hundred yards was good nearly
every time for all small game. But
here every, shot failed; cloud of dust
| would puff up at the very entrance of the
burrow each time and / would conf
IDENTIFY walk over to pick him out, but
no, next day at noon he was there
again, looking out as smiling as ever.
He was captured finally by my tying a
Colts revolver to stout stake driven
down within few feet of the burrow
and training the aim down the entrance,
and then tying long string to the trig-
ger, waited behind the wall till he
again showed himself, when the success
of the device sealed his doom.