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as a winter's supply, and it has very generally been supposed that they 

 remained active daring the cold and stormy season, consuming the food 

 previously gathered. In a book entitled " A Naturalist's Rambles 

 about Home," by Charles C Abbott, we learn from his personal obser- 

 vations that they become quite trepid in cold weather. Speaking of a 

 pair which he watched, he says : " Until the weather became fairly 

 settled and raally spring-like in character, these little Chipniunks did 

 not often show themselves, and when they did it was only in the middle 

 of the day. They appeared to foresee the occurrence of a col I rain storm 

 twentj-four hours in advance and resumed their hibernating slumbers, 

 becoming lethargic and very difiicult to arouse. A pair that I had dug 

 nut ill March, having two days before re-entered their winter quarters 

 an ! become quite torpid, were apparently lifeless when first taken into 

 the hanJs, and it w;is not until after several hours' warming that they 

 l)ecame lively and altogether like themselves. This seeme.! to me the 

 more curious, in that they can respond to a favorable change in the 

 wea,ther in a short time, even wben the therraometric change is really 

 but a few degrees." In another place he says : " The food gathered, 

 usually nuts and corn, is, I believe, partly consumed when they go into 

 winter quarters, and before they begin their hibernating sleep, which 

 may not be for some time. This impression is based on the result of 

 digging out a nest as late as the 3i'd of November, I found four Chip- 

 munks veiy cozily fixed for winter in a roomy compartment and all of 

 them thoroughly wide awake. Their store of provisions was in a smaller 

 room or storehouse immediately adjoining. How long this underground 

 life lasts before hibernation really commences it is difficult to determine ; 

 but as the torpid state does not continue until their food supply is 

 again olitainable outdoors, the Chipmunks, no doubt, store away 

 sufficient food for their needs throughout the early spring." 



I well remember ray first sight of a Chipmunk. I had then 

 reached the inquisitive age of five years. Our family had just arrived 

 at Smith's Falls direct from Scotland, and were on their way to the 

 house of a relative who had come to this country some years before. 

 The little animal was seen running along a fence, and some of my 

 brothers who were older than myself immediately gave chase with the 

 intention of capturing it, being unJer the impression that it was an 



