SQUIRREL FAMILY 



195 



traction is the waste grain and the camji refuse. 

 In such places the\- become very tame, even to 

 the point of eating out of a person's hand. 



Like most Chipmunks the Say is out in 

 greatest abundance during the early morning 

 hours or late in the afternoon, and may be seen 

 frisking about the rocks and stumps of trees, on 

 the sides of canyons, or along fences, or busily 

 feeding in the thickets of wild cherry and June 

 berry so abundant in the canyon bottoms. It is 

 usually shy, and when surprised hastily takes 

 refuge among the rocks, uttering high-pitched 

 chippering notes. The ordinary note, however, 

 is a soft " chuck, chuck," usually uttered when 

 the animal is at a distance from the observer 

 and either sitting on the summit of a large rock 

 far up the canyon side or on a tree stump in the 

 silence of the yellow pine forest. 



The Hopi Chipmunk gets its name from the 

 Hopi Indians near whose reservations it is 

 found. It is at home in the cedar and pinyon 

 pine regions of parts of Arizona, Utah and 

 Colorado. It is darker than the Least Chip- 

 munk, but lighter than the forms living in the 

 forested plateaus and mountains. Its general 

 habits are similar to others. 



In size and general appearance the Hopi 

 Chipmunk resembles Say's, but its move- 

 ments are more deliberate and its colors much 

 brighter and richer. The long tail is carried 

 more nearly horizontally, even when the animal 

 is running. This striking habit, together with the 

 graceful downward curve of the tail near the 

 tip, serves to distinguish it, even at a distance. 

 The Hopi Chipmunks appear equally at home 

 among the hot rocks in the precipitous canyons, 

 and in the dense juniper and pinyon growth 

 which clothes the bordering mesas. They feed 

 extensively upon juniper berries. 



The Least Chipuitink is another of the several 

 species and subspecies which make the region 

 west of the Mississippi River their home. The 

 greater diversity of the climate and country re- 

 sults in a greater variation in animal forms in- 



Photograph by J. H. Field 



BANGS'S CHIPMUNK 

 A middle-western member of the Eastern Chipmunk group 



habiting it. One species will live in the very 

 lofty mountains, another in the sagebrush desert, 

 and the third in the prairie regions. This Chip- 

 munk has the same general appearance as the 

 other Western Chipmunks, but is much lighter 

 in ground color, as might be expected from the 

 fact that it lives in the sagebrush deserts of parts 



Photograph by the U. S. Biological Survey 



YELLOW-BELLIED CHIPMUNK 



