THE AMERICAN CHIPMUNK. 433 



transit of Venus, German astronomers have made some telegraphic 

 measurements of differences of time in the East Indies ; but the vast 

 and constantly increasing net-work of cables nearly surrounding the 

 earth will afford work for years to come, and will, in a way hardly 

 contemplated by the projectors, add in a very great degree to accu- 

 rate geographical knowledge. 







THE AMERICAN CHIPMUNK. 



By CHAKLES C. ABBOTT, M. D. 



WITH the first sweet blossoms of the Epigsea, and long before 

 the foremost warbler greets his old-time home with gleesome 

 songs, our little chipmunk has roused himself from his long winter's 

 nap, and, sniffing the south wind, as it whirls the dead leaves about, 

 scampers to and fro while the sun shines, and dives into his winter- 

 quarters, it may be for a whole week, if the north wind whispers to 

 the tall beech-trees. But the blustering days of March give way in 

 due time to showery April, and then, with more courage, " chip " 

 faces the music of the winds, blow they from whatever quarter, and 

 darting along the top rail of our zigzag fences, chatters, scolds, and 

 calls at and to his equally noisy companions. They know full well 

 that they have the summer before them, and, while determined to enjoy 

 it, begin early and in good earnest to make arrangements for its com- 

 ing duties. We watched several pairs of them from March to No- 

 vember, during the last year (1874), and our sketch is based on nu- 

 merous notes made at different times. 



Until the weather became fairly settled, and really spring-like in 

 temperature, these little chipmunks did not frequently show them- 

 selves, and then only in the middle of the day. The occurrence of a 

 cold storm they appeared to foretell by twenty-four hours, and re- 

 sumed their hibernating sleep, becoming lethargic, and very difficult 

 to restore to consciousness. A pair that we dug out in March, having 

 two days before reentered their winter-quarters and become again 

 torpid, w^ere apparently lifeless when first taken up in the hands, and 

 not until after several hours' warming did they become lively and 

 altogether themselves again. This seemed to us the more curious, 

 in that they can respond to a favorable change in the weather in 

 a short time, even when the thermometric change is really but a few 

 degrees. 



On the 3d of May a pair made their ap])earance in the yard of our 



residence, and took up their abode in a stone-wall having a southern 



outlook, and on the edge of a steep descent of seventy feet ; which 



hill-side is thickly wooded, and harbors scores of these little chip- 



VOL. VII. 28 



