Home Nature-Study Course. 369 



Campus, and every year the mother of a small family mtroduces her 

 little ones to the privileges of this house, which is supposed to be 

 reserved for the insect inhabitants of its conservatory. Almost any 

 day in May or Jmie those of us who go out and in, encounter one or 

 more of these youngsters running about beneath our feet with a faith 

 as yet unbroken of contact with a world where only the fit survive. 



Chipmunks are more easily tamed than red squirrels and will soon 

 learn that pockets may contain nuts and other things good to eat. 

 To see one of these little striped fellows searching the pockets of his 

 man friend is one of the prettiest sights I have ever witnessed. 



The first tame chipmimk of my acquaintance belonged to a species 

 found in the California Sierras. He was a beautiful little creature 

 who loved to play about his mistress's room, with every nook and 

 corner of which he w^as familiar. His mistress being a naturalist as 

 well as a poet, was well able to understand her little companion, and 

 the relations between them w^ere beautiful to witness. He was very 

 fond of English walnuts and believed that every nut in the dish on 

 the table was meant for him, and he always worked hard at hiding 

 them until the dish was empty. One day his mistress in taking off 

 her bonnet after returning from church, discovered several of these 

 nuts tucked safely in the velvet bows; the nuts were invisible from 

 the front but perfectly in sight from the side. Even yet she wonders 

 what the people at church that day thought of her original ideas in 

 millinery adornment, and she wonders still more how Chipsie man- 

 aged to get into the bonnet box without apparently disturbing the 

 cover, which was always kept carefully closed to keep him from 

 taking too many liberties with the contents. 



A Lesson on the Chipmunk for Fourth to Seventh Grades. 



Make the field note-book the basis for the work. Ask for notes 

 that shall cover the following list of questions. After the observa- 

 tions have been made as far as possible (that is, for a month or two), 

 ask for a written or an oral exercise which shall combine the personal 

 observation in the field note-book and such information as the pupil 

 may be able to obtain in the books which are at his command. 



I wish the students in the Home Nature-Study Course to follow 

 this plan. Observe as far as possible and place the results in your 

 field note-book and answer the following questions, or write me a 

 short essay that will cover the points raised by the questions. 

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