. Familiar life in field and forest; the animals, birds, frogs, and salamanders . FIELD AND FOREST. In September the woodchuck sits by his hole theperfect image of listlessness ; he is as absolutely mo-tionless as a bump on a log. Possibly he medi-tates upon the changing aspect of Nature, at any ratehe does not move a muscle, and it is doubtful whether his mind workssilently and Approach him never socautiously and he popsin without a prelimi-nary movement. Onone occasion, though,I did actually see(f y him change his po-sition before he dis-appeared. At firsthe was upright, thenon my nearer ap-
. Familiar life in field and forest; the animals, birds, frogs, and salamanders . FIELD AND FOREST. In September the woodchuck sits by his hole theperfect image of listlessness ; he is as absolutely mo-tionless as a bump on a log. Possibly he medi-tates upon the changing aspect of Nature, at any ratehe does not move a muscle, and it is doubtful whether his mind workssilently and Approach him never socautiously and he popsin without a prelimi-nary movement. Onone occasion, though,I did actually see(f y him change his po-sition before he dis-appeared. At firsthe was upright, thenon my nearer ap-proach he droppedhorizontally, and whenI got to within ten feet of him he was gone. Pres-ently I took a harmonicon from my pocket andplayed softly upon it; being highly susceptible tothe sweet influences of music he reappeared at hisdoorstep, and, with a slight expression of disturbanceon his usually dull countenance, eyed me with somecuriosity and disapproval. I imagined if he pos-sessed the power of speech he would have said, This may be quite a clever performance, sir, but. The perfect image of A NIGHTLY PROWLER. 253 on the whole Id thank you not to disturb myautumn reverie. When the woodchuck is tamed he is not uninter-esting, and there are numerous stories told of hisstrange habits which are quite amusing. Dr. Kel-logg, in the American Naturalist,* tells of a tamemarmot he had which was allowed to sit at table withthe family in one of the childrens chairs. This hedid with all possible decorum; but when he smelledthe sweet cake and other tempting viands, he forgothis manners and manifested his pleasure by singing apurring kind of a song, during the performance ofwhich his lips and nostrils appeared to be slightly agi-tated. When the woodchuck is unexpectedly startledby an approaching footstep he utters a sharp, tremu-lous whistle which reminds one of the agitated voiceof the red squirrel. The female bears from four to six young aboutthe end of April or the fi
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