The Burgess Animal Book for Children

osed that the Woodchucks were a family by themselves. Now that he knew that he had some close relatives, he was filled with quite as much curiosity as ever Peter Rab

of yours out there are a great deal like you in a general way. The biggest and handsomest of all is Whist

than Johnny Chuck?"

, nodding her head. "Considerably bigger. I shou

My!" he exclaimed, "I should like

of his head, his feet and nails are black, and so are his ears. A black band runs from behind each ear down to his neck. His chin is pure white and there is white on his nose. Underneat

he called Whistler?" as

ce," replied Old Mother Nature. "He sits up just as you do. If he sees dange

lives in a hole in the ground as Joh

lives in entirely different country. He lives up on the sides of the mountains, often so high

Peter. "I guess he doesn't have to wo

out. By the way, I forgot to tell you that Whistler is also called the Gray Marmot and the Hoary Marmot. He lives on grass and other green things and, like Johnny Chuck, gets very fat in the fall and then sleeps all winter. There are one or two other Marmots in the Far West who live farther south than does Whistler, but their habits are much the s

quirrel before Johnny Chuck, who is natu

ot, but Yap Yap has five, just as the Ground Squirrels have. He looks very much like a small Chuck dressed in light yellow-brown. His tail for the most part is the same color as his coat, but the end is black, t

y dry and rain seldom falls. When you find his home you are sure to find the homes of many more Prairie Dogs very close at hand. Sometimes t

me kind of a hole that I

is is that when it does rain out where Yap Yap lives it rains very hard indeed, so that the water stands on the ground for a short time. The ground being flat, a lot of water would run down into Yap Yap's home and make him most uncomfortable if he did not do something to keep it out. So he brings the sand out and piles it all the way a

of talking among themselves. The instant one of them sees an enemy he gives a signal. Then every Prairie Dog scamper

going clear to the bottom to

e room at one side of his tunnel. All he has to do is to scramble into that, turn around and then pop his head out. As I said before, his tunnel go

lives, how does he get water

igs down until he finds water way down underneath, but this isn't so. He doesn't h

st of us, he has lots o

hadow the Weasel called the Black-footed Ferret. He is to be feared most of all because he can follow Yap Yap down into his hole. There is a cousin of Hooty the Owl called the Burrowing

self the Owl will sometimes take possession of one of Yap Yap's deserted holes. If he should make a mistake and enter a hole in which Yap Yap was at home, the chances are that Yap Yap would kill the Owl for he knows that the Owl is an enemy. Buzztail the Rattlesnake

alled a Dog?

eople should call him a Dog I don't know, unless it is because of his habit of barking, and even his bark isn't at all like a Dog's-

Chipmunk and Johnny Chuck. "We want to know about the rest of the members of the order of Rodents or Gn

ll right," said she, "come again to-morrow m