358 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



that I was a friend, and approached almost to my feet for my 

 gifts. It would take a nut from its paws and dexterously htte 

 off the sharp point from each end, and then pass it to its cheek 

 pouch, using its paws to shove it in, then one would be placed 

 on the opposite side, then again one along with the first, and 

 finally, having taken one between its front teeth, it would go 

 into the burrow. After remaining there for five or ten minutes 

 it would reappear for another load." 



The Gray-squirrel stores its food in numberless places, 

 sometimes a single nut in each. Usually these are found in the 

 ground, where it could not utilize the food during frosty weather. 

 Maybe this points to a southern origin for the species. The 

 Red-squirrel, a creature of more northern range and yet rarely 

 hibernating, stores its food in one or two large storehouses 

 where it can find it, when most it is needed, no matter how hard 

 the frost or deep the snow. The Chipmunk seems to do both 

 ways, or to compromise between them. 



** In addition to their storehouses," Dr. Merriam observes,^^ 

 **they frequently, like the Gray-squirrel, make little caches, 

 burying here and there beneath the leaves the contents of their 

 cheek pouches." 



Mr. Ira Sayles thus graphically describes" this habit: 



"I lately noticed in my garden a bright-eyed Chipmunk, 

 Sciurus striatus, advancing along a line directly toward me. 

 He came briskly forward, without deviating a hair's breadth to 

 the right or the left, until within two feet of me; then turned 

 square toward my left — his right — and went about three feet 

 or less. Here he paused a moment and gave a sharp look all 

 around him, as if to detect any lurking spy on his movements. 

 (His distended cheeks revealed his business — he had been out 

 foraging.) He now put his nose to the ground, and, aiding 

 this member with both forepaws, thrust his head and shoulders 

 down through the dry leaves and soft muck, half burying him- 

 self in an instant. 



"At first I thought him after the bulb of an Erythronium, 

 that grew directly in front of his face and about three inches from 



^ Mam. Adir, 1884, pp. 235-6. ^ Am. Nat., June, 1870, p. 249. 



