238 MAMMALIA. 



to watch one side of the tree while the boy guarded the other. 

 Presently the affrighted and giddy Chipmunk, head downward, 

 would commence to descend, circling around the trunk. Harassed 

 on whichever side of the tree he appeared he usually lost his head 

 and soon came rushing toward the ground, when he was either 

 knocked over with a stick, or seized by the dog. 



It occasionally happens that Chipmunks are met with that do 

 not show this aversion to tree climbing, particularly when collect- 

 ing food for their hoards. The trail from Big Moose Lake to 

 West Pond crosses a low beech ridge whose northern exposure 

 slopes gradually to the lake. Here, during the latter part of 

 October and early November, 1881 (beechnut year), Chipmunks 

 abounded. Here also Dr. A. K. Fisher and the writer, seated upon 

 a half-decayed log, observed their actions unheeded. They were 

 very busy. Some were gathering the nuts and crowding them into 

 their over-distended cheek-pouches ; others were carrying their 

 loads to the store-houses in the ridge ; whilst others still, returning 

 for more, were bounding lightly over the fallen leaves and play- 

 fully chasing one another among the logs and brushwood that 

 lay upon the ground. A few, more venturesome than the rest, 

 were not content to gather the nuts that frost and wind had strewn 

 upon the earth, but essayed to climb and pick them from the 

 boughs. Two were seen at one time high up in the trees, and 

 one in particular was observed making regular journeys from his 

 hole in the side-hill to the uppermost branches of a beech fully 

 sixty feet (over 18 metres) in height. He seemed as much at 

 ease here as would any of our arboreal squirrels, but we noticed 

 that he never tried to leap from limb to limb. 



The Chipmunk is such a beautiful, graceful, active, and seem- 

 ingly confiding animal in the wild state, that he would naturally 

 be expected to become one of the most charming of pets. Experi- 

 ence, however, has not confirmed this supposition. Most writers, 

 as well as myself, have found him morose and uninteresting in 



