348 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



In Pennsylvania, during late October, S. N. Rhoads col- 

 lected ^ some two-thirds grown Chipmunks which could not 

 have been born much earlier than late July. 



How are we to reconcile all this evidence ? Is it not pos- 

 sible that the species has several ruts in the year, and those 

 females that are impregnated in the fall have a protracted 

 gestation, as has been observed in certain other mammals that 

 hibernate ? It seems probable at least that two broods are 

 produced each year. 



Nevertheless, the principal season of sexual ardor is that of 

 early spring. Though the others are open to question, there 

 can be no doubt in the case of the spring-time revel. So that, 

 beginning with the general awakening, the first month of their 

 vernal life is given up to love, music, and feasting. It was for 

 this merry month of carnival that the abundant supplies were 

 laid up the year before. Food is now scarce everywhere, 

 there is snow in the woods, there may even be more snow 

 storms, and the Chipmunks' joy might seem likely to precede 

 disaster had they not provided against the possibility of evil 

 days. For a month or more their chief dependence will be 

 this garnered product of the year gone by. 



BREED- Whether they pair or not I cannot say; most naturalists 



believe that they do. I have usually found two old Chipmunks 

 in each hole except when the young were very small; then the 

 mother alone is seen about. The time of gestation, judging 

 from analogy, should be about a month, but I have no direct 

 evidence, and the fact of hibernation might greatly prolong the 

 period in those females that were newly pregnant when entering 

 on their winter sleep. 



Rhoads thinks^" "it is not unlikely that the female Chip- 

 munk during parturition, and for some time after the birth of 

 her young, does not leave the burrow, but either lives on the 

 food she has stored there, or is fed by her male partner." 



The following note bears on their habits at this season: 

 On May 29, 1905, I caught the Chipmunk that lives in the 



" Ibid. '» Ihid. 



ING 



