Arctomys monax. The same as the GROUND-HOG.

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1768.  “920 Musquash, 59 Wood Chucks, &c.” were slain in the year 1682 as part of an Indian funeral ceremony.—Boston News-Letter, June 30: from the Halifax Gazette.

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1781.  The Woodchuck, erroneously called the badger by some persons, is of the size of a large racoon, in form resembles a guinea-pig, and, when eating, makes a noise like a hog, whence he is named Woodchuck or Chuck of the Wood.—Samuel Peters, ‘History of Connecticut,’ p. 250 (Lond.).

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1789.  

        See from proud Egremont, the wood-chuck train
Sweep their dark files, and shade with rags the plain.
American Museum, v. 95: from a fictitious epic, ‘The Anarchiad.’    

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1792.  The woodchuck (ursi vel mustelæ species) is a small animal which burrows in the earth. It is generally fat to a proverb, and its flesh is palatable food.—Jeremy Belknap, ‘New Hampshire,’ iii. 153.

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1797.  A fifty acre lot, which would not maintain a woodchuck.—Mass. Spy, July 12.

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1809.  

        Then if to go further I was put in doubt
  By a Chuck at the mouth of a hole;
The Woodchuck crept in, and the Woodchuck crept out,
And sported his tail, and his head mov’d about,
  I scarce dar’d pass by, on my soul!
Id., Nov. 8.    

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1817.  Woodchuck Hunt. Woodchucks have appeared in great numbers [in Deerfield, Mass.] this spring…. The woodchuck rarely, if ever, ventures far from his hole.—Id., June 18.

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1823.  Think, Natty, how I should triumph over that quizzing dog, Dick Jones, who has failed seven times this season already, and has only brought in one wood-chuck and a few gray squirrels.—J. F. Cooper, ‘The Pioneers,’ i. i.

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1824.  

        Woodchucks would burrow in State Street,
And gaunt wolves prowl where merchants meet.
New England Farmer’s Boy, New Year’s Address.    

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1825.  Never seed a wood chuck in a toad-hole, I guess?—John Neal, ‘Brother Jonathan,’ i. 108.

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1825.  

        It happened Jack, the younger son,
As many other boys have done
  By chance a woodchuck caught.
N.H. Patriot, Concord, March 7.    

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1837.  The mass of the American people care no more for a lord than they care for a wood-chuck.—J. F. Cooper. ‘England,’ ii. 245.

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a. 1848.  A farmer was interrogated by his negro servant, why he did not pray the Lord to prevent the woodchucks from eating the beans.—Dow, Jun., ‘Patent Sermons,’ i. 249.

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a. 1853.  You appear to be as stupid as a lot of woodchucks in winter.—Id., iii. 155.

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