392 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



or forty feet if you rush at him, but waiting till you are within 

 ten if you go slowly. Now the ready trap is set at the door in 

 plain view; neither bait nor covering is needed. In a minute, 

 if all be still, the Ground-squirrel reappears, popping his head 

 out cautiously once or twice, then boldly leaping out when he 

 sees you at a safe distance. If he chances to overleap the trap 

 this time or step too lightly to spring it, a clod thrown at him 

 sends him skurrying back in such heedless haste as is sure to 

 land him in the disaster you had planned. 



When a snare is used it is set round the rim of the hole. 

 The trapper now lies down some ten feet away, and jerks the 

 noose as soon as the victim's head appears above the grass. If, 

 however, it be near sunset when he goes down below, you need 

 not expect to see him out again that day. 



I have many times driven a Ground-squirrel gently into 

 his hole, then sat down to wait beside it. His short whistle is 

 invariably heard within once or twice, then his nose reap- 

 pears, only to drop back when he sees you. But he returns, 

 and if you are still he gets bolder, popping back and forth, 

 probably, and though you be but three feet from the mouth he 

 will dodge out and scuttle away to the next burrow. It looks 

 like a piece of daredevil bravado, for in many cases there was 

 reason to suppose he was owner of the hole he was leaving and 

 was not driven forth by any inhospitable relative. It is 

 often a help in bringing him out if you whistle softly. 



AUTUMN Toward mid September, as the days grow short and the 



mornings chilly, the Ground-squirrel comes out less often. By the 

 end of the month, or at latest the middle of October, it says good- 

 bye to the light upper world and sinks, like the flowers, into the 

 slumber that is to last until spring. For half of each year, half 

 of its life is spent in a sleep so deep that it is a temporary death. 



SER- The work that the various Ground-squirrels do for man 



VICES . . . . . 



TO MAN as tillers of the soil is not to be forgotten, but it is small when 

 compared with that done by the Pocket-gopher, and is more 

 than offset by their destruction to standing grain. 



