360 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



thus get nuts faster than by picking them up themselves. In 

 a burrow dug open in November I found over half a bushel 

 of hickory nuts and acorns." 



Another opened in January by Audubon and Bachman is 

 thus described i^"^ 



''There was about a gill of wheat and buckwheat in the 

 nest; but in the galleries we afterward dug out, we obtained 

 about a quart of the beaked hazel nuts {Corylus rostrata), nearly 

 a peck of acorns, some grains of Indian corn, about two quarts 

 of buckwheat, and a very small quantity of grass seeds. The 

 late Dr. John Wright, of Troy, in an interesting communication 

 on the habits of several of our quadrupeds, informs us, in refer- 

 ence to the species, that 'it is a most provident little creature, 

 continuing to add to its winter store, if food is abundant, until 

 driven in by the severity of the frost. Indeed, it seems not 

 to know when it has enough, if we may judge by the surplus 

 left in the spring, being sometimes a peck of corn or nuts for a 

 single Squirrel.'" 



Evidently these two famous naturalists overlooked the fact, 

 already noted, that spring is the time of the hard pinch. 



In Manitoba the serious gathering of supplies is confined, 

 I think, to August and September, though they lose no oppor- 

 tunity, while the weather continues warm, working from sun- 

 rise till sunset, or even a little later, but never by night. 



DIURNAL So far as I have been able to observe the Chipmunk is 



strictly diurnal. Audubon depicts the barn owl — most noctur- 

 nal of its tribe — with a Chipmunk in its claws; doubtless he 

 had some good reason for this, but I do not know what it was. 



ENEMIES Among the Chipmunk's enemies are cats. Foxes, Weasels, 



hawks, and snakes, but the smaller Weasels are probably the 

 most destructive of its foes. It has only one means of escape 

 from these bloodthirsty little fiends, and that is retreating into 

 some side gallery of the burrow, and then plugging with earth 

 the passage behind it. I never saw this done, but I have often 



-* Quad. N. A., 1849, P- 7°- 



