Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1904 — "SLEEPY” WOODCHUCK [ARTICLE]

"SLEEPY” WOODCHUCK

Little Groundhog Is Far More Alert Than He Looks. If there is any one of our native amimals that looks stow, clumsy, “lazy” and generally unfit to survive in the struggle for existence, it is the woodchuck. After he has built, or, rather, excavated his home—which to tell the truth, he does in a rapid and businesslike way—he does nothing but eat and sleep. Yet anyone who sizes him up as an incompetent is likely to get fooled, for he is a source of continual surprises. When your garden is not far from the woods, you may be awakened in the middle of the night by a series of most alarming yells and howls, occasioned by some hungry woodchuck that has come out for a nocturnal visit to the cabbage patch and met with a warm reception from your two dogs. The woodchuck usually gets away unharmed, while the dogs are left to nurse their scratched noses and fore paws. Ifhe woodchuck. in fact, has plenty of courage, and wil. always fight ta preference to running away. Throughout the summer this little “wood pig” spends most of tfie time in the vicinity of his burrow, coining out early in the morning to take his breakfast, returning to his nest for a mor.ing nap, appearing again at noon and late in the afternoon for his dinner and supj er, only to return for another snooze. Occasionally he makes a visit to some neighboring orchard or garden. By October 1, when he is fat, he i elites into his subterranean home fer a long sleep, until we are led to believe, the proverbial "ground-hog" day— Country Life in America.