4i6 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



tions a little farther than any yet 

 published as I was fortunate enough 

 to tame a female specimen sufficiently 

 to make her attempt at least to dig 

 a hole in my presence. This came 

 about by accident in the effort to make 

 the animal as comfortable as possible 

 in captivity and in thus doing a large 

 jardiniere of damp earth was furnished 

 her in which to dig. As I imagined 

 it would be, the earth was a great 

 source of comfort and immediately on 

 being placed in it she would begin to 

 dig. She made the earth fly so that I 

 one day placed my hands at the side 

 of the jar so that the earth would not 

 fly over the room. She began packing 

 the earth against my hands and was 

 soon half way to the bottom of the 

 jar. It was then that I observed that 

 after digging away the dirt with her 

 fore feet like any burrowing animal, 

 and throwing it under her body, she 

 whirled around and began tamping 

 and packing it away with her head, 

 using it as a battering ram and packing 

 in the earth at each side and when 

 possible at the top. To further try 

 her I placed my hands down over the 

 pile of earth so that they formed sort 

 of an outer covering to tunnels she 

 was digging, and she continued pack- 

 ing the earth against my hands so that 

 it formed a complete and solid tunnel, 

 my hands holding it in place. She 

 used her mouth to pick out pebbles. 

 A fern had been formerly growing in 

 the jardiniere and there were several 

 roots which she also tore out with 

 her teeth. But not a morsel of earth 

 did she take in her cheek pouches, but 

 on the contrary was continually stop- 

 ping and cleaning her mouth and fur. 

 She became utterly absorbed in the 

 work, so much so that I could hold 

 her by the hind parts while she dug 

 with the fore feet ! [Good, good, 

 good!— E. F. B.] 



I have found no animal which fol- 

 lows out in captivity any more exactly 

 their wild ways than the chipmunk. 

 Fill his food dish with nuts and he 

 does not rest until it is all transferred 

 to his nest. Therefore I believe that 

 this female worked exactly as she 

 would have done in digging her bur- 

 row. My theory is that the hole is 



i lug near trees or stumps where the 

 earth is comparatively soft and spongy 

 and that it is packed away in the man- 

 ner above described. It is true that 

 holes are often found in hard places 

 by the roadside — I found one this fall 

 fairly into the hard part of a country 

 road — but this is only one entrance 

 and in such cases J believe loose 

 places under the road are taken ad- 

 vantage of, and that it is the hole that 

 winds up the digging (all burrows 

 have two entrances) and not the one 

 where the burrow is started. 



| What an astonishing and pleasur- 

 able experience with that digging chip- 

 munk ! Now we envy Mr. Morton 

 in that experience. A day in which 

 such an event occurred was really 

 worth living". — En. I 



"IKEY," A REMARKABLE PARBOT. 



BY A. LOl'ISK ANDREA, NEW YORK CITY. 



As near as we can tell, this parrot 

 was sixty-five years old, for he was 

 a family possession during forty years 

 and came to us without any character 

 and reputed to be twenty-five. I le was 

 uncannily clever and had such a dis- 

 tinct individuality that he led us to 

 think that there must be something 

 in either the doctrine of metempsycho- 

 sis or obsession. 



Perhaps his gifts received extra de- 

 velopment through long residence in 

 a college town, for the minister said 

 he possessed sophomoric omnisiencc. 

 Also the parrot knew his rights and 

 insisted upon their strict observance, 



He had been named [key in conse- 

 quence of the shape of his nose and 

 he not only took to the name readily 

 but always spoke of himself as "Ikey." 

 lie was a large green bird, with red 

 markings and his active little brain 

 had stored away an astonishing wealth 

 of information, knowledge and expe- 

 rience. 



Most assuredly Ikey could be called 

 a talker and not in the ordinary "par- 

 rot" sense — that is, using words and 

 sentences that sometimes fitted occa- 

 sion. No, for daily he used language 

 that proved he knew just what he was 

 saying and why he said it. Nor was 

 it all mere repetition, for very often 

 he came out with utterances that must 



