The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-06-22
THE GROUND HOG.
A . Matter of Fact 1t Seldom Leaves TT
Burrow Before March.


This interesting animal is equally
well known as the 'fwoodchuck." But
1t has great many other names be-
sides. In fact. people would seem to
have exhausted ingenuity in devising
varied designa tons for the beast.
Linn@us, the famous founder of the
modern school of natural history, en-
titled it mus mouax," which, being
interpreted, means cross between a
mouse and monkey. The Canadian
French speak of it as the ''siffieur' or
whistler" This is on account OF the
whistling noise which it sometimes
makes when startled. In the great
fur-bearing region about Hudson's
bay it answers to the name of the
''thickwood badger" while to the
westward the hardy Inhabitants Of
Alaska mean woodchuck when they ex-
claim ''tarbagan," and the wild Chip
pewas likewise when they grunt
Unsatisfactory.
The animals habits do not vary with
the multitude of his titles He lives in
burrow remarkable for its extent. 1t
is dug into the slope of a hill or by the
side OF big stone, making an excava-
ton twenty or thirty feet long, which
descends obliquely four or FIVE feet.
then gradually rising to large round
chamber, where the grounding family
sleeps and brings up its young. The
little ones are born three to eight at
time. When the farmer, with his
horses and mowing-machine, chances
to slump into one of these holes, disap.
pearing from view until sx,avated by
charitable neighbors, he is apt to feel
annoyed and to revile the whole wood.
chuck tribe, without discrimination. 1t
is largely on this account that bounties
for killing the creatures have been Of
fered in New Hampshire and other
states. as much as ten cents for each
tail being paid Hunters will not kill
taem, Tor the fur is worthless and the
flesh by no means palatable. 1t is not
true that in certain parts of the country
farmers have found it necessary to
shovel paths through ground hogs In
order to reach their barns.
Save in the way just mentioned, the
woodchuck does little or no harm to
anybody. He is strictly vegetarian,
feeding mostly on clover and grass.
Rarely does he enter the garden, pre-.
ferring the open meadows and rocky
hillsides. The first rains that fall eopi.
ously after haying is over cause the
fresh green grass to spring up anew
This second crop in many places con.
sists largely of red clover, which the
ground hog regards as a most delight
full delicacy. 1t eats so much during
the latter part of August and the first
half of the following month that it be.
comes exceedingly fat and inert.
About September 80 or a little later il
goes into winter quarters. and il does
not come out again to stay until the
middle of March.
This creature is the most remarka.
BILE existing example of alternating
mammal. 1t lays up no store of pro.
visions as the squirrel does. It's food
is of such a nature that it will not
keep, and so the ground hog must
sleep to save itself from starving. Ii
disappears with astonishing precision
within a. few days of the autuInnal
equinox, and remains underground un-
til about the time when the sun
cuts the plane of the equator at the
vernal equinox. Often the weather is
very warm when it retires, and il will
come out in March when the snow is
on the ground, making long journeys
to find places where patches of the
coveted green grass have been laid bare
by thaw. At the end OF the winter the
animal is thin and doubtless feels
rather see6y, having lived on its own
tissues and without sustenance for 40
long time.
During the term of Information phys
zeal waste is reduced to a very low
point, the hearts action slackeninp and
the breathing becoming SO light that
it can only be detected by delicate in
struments. Even when kept in a warm
house through the cold season a tame
ground hog becomes torpid at the usual
date and remains so until the heredi-
tary habit has been carried 20 the Gus
tomary term. In this latitude the
Information of the animal is
not SO complete as farther north.
and a few hundred miles far.
Their south it is interrupted by periods
of wakefulness, during which the wood
chuck goes abroad and gets its meals.
The practice of alternating is merely
device of nature for enabling the
animal to get along without food at
times when there is no food TO be had.
Otherwise it would perish and the
species would become extinct
No use for the ground hog worth
mentioning has ever been discovered.
Il is otherwise with another queer
mammal-the porcupine. Porcupines
have been used as fuel. for which pur-
poses they are said to be superior to
wood Some time ago, at the Wilmot
mine in MinneSotS, the porcupines
came to be regarded as such a nuisance,
being very numerous, that ore day the
foreman threw g couple OF dead ones
into the fireplace Of the steam drill
To his surprise the steam ran I'D 10
eighty pounds IN a short time. FRom
that time on the miners were instruct
ed to kill and bring il. every porcupine
they could catch for use in the furnace.
Such. al all events, Is the story
Washington Star.