Little Chipmunk 369 



There is, moreover, nothing of the nature of a migration non- 

 among these Chipmunks. This individual fixity has had the tory 

 usual result of splitting up the group into a great number of 

 different forms, corresponding with the life conditions of each 

 locality. 



If Chipmunks were given to travel, the races which 

 abound in the south and west would have been swamped, 

 except where they were the simultaneous product of a large 

 region. But strange to say, the Chipmunk as a species seems 

 less able to transport itself from place to place than are many 

 trees and plants. 



This creature is very local in distribution. It may seem abun- 

 rare in a given region, then suddenly we come on some place of 

 exceptionally favourable conditions and find the Chipmunks in 

 numbers. At the old sawmill mentioned later, there were 

 hundreds of these bright little creatures. One could have seen 

 50 in ten minutes when the place was a wilderness of ram- 

 shackle buildings and lumber piles. I dare say that the acre 

 in which the mill stood held not less than 1,000 Chipmunks. 

 But this was in the early 8o's. In 1892 the mill was gone, and 

 the Chipmunks with it; still I thought the species more generally 

 abundant about Carberry than in 1883. 



In Turtle Mountain, as I learn from A. S. Barton, it is 

 very abundant in some years and scarce in others; whether 

 this is due to epidemics, as with the Rabbits, or to famine, as 

 with many species, is yet to be ascertained. 



In spring the Little Chipmunk appears about the same spring 



11 1 • 1 • 1 r I r A -1 ADVENT 



time as the larger one, that is, during the hrst week 01 April. 

 At Touchwood Hills in 1902 the first one was seen on April 13. 

 But its evident dependence on temperature is shown by the fact 

 that in the mild season of 1905 this species appeared above 

 ground at Boissevain, Man., during February, and was there- 

 fore dormant but little more than two months that winter. 



It seems hardier than striatus, for in the Rocky Mountains 

 of Wyoming and Colorado I often saw it running over the snow 



