Herrick, Instinctive Traits in Animals. 121 



ing account is quoted from a sprightly article in the Avierican 

 Naturalist, by Ira Sayles. (Am. Nat. vol. iv, p. 349.) 



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

 Tatnias striatus, advancing towards me. . . 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 fore paws, thrust his head and shoulders down through the 

 dry leaves and soft muck, half burying himself in an instant. 



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

 that grew near. . . Presently, however, he became 



comparatively quiet. In this state he remained, possibly half a 

 minute. He then commenced a vigorous action as if digging 

 deeper ; but I noticed that he did not get deeper ; on the con- 

 trary, he was gradually backing out. I was surprised that in all 

 his apparent hard work (he worked like a man on a wager) he 

 threw back no dirt. But this vigorous labor could not last long. 

 He was soon completely above ground, and then became mani- 

 fest the object of his earnest work ; he was refilling the hole he 

 had made and repacking the dirt and leaves he had disturbed. 

 Nor was he content with refilling and repacking the hole. With 

 his two little hand-like feet he patted the surface, and so exactly 

 replaced the leaves that, when he had completed his task, my 

 eye could detect not the slightest difference between the surface 

 he had so cunningly manipulated and that surrounding it. 

 It was now my turn to dig, in order to discover the little miser's 

 treasure. I gently removed enough of the leaves and fine muck 

 to expose his hoard — half a pint of buttercup seeds. Ranunculus 

 acris. I took out a dozen seeds or so, recovered the treasure as 

 well as my bungling hands couldf and withdrew, filled with as- 

 tonishment at the exhibition of cunning, skill and instinct of the 

 little much abused denizen of our field borders." — [Mammals of 

 Minnesota, p. 160.] 



Obeying the acquisitive impulse, young animals seize 

 an object (perhaps a bit of paper) and are frantically pursued 

 by their fellows who bear down on it and rush off in triumph 

 with their useless spoil and hide it with painful care. 



The constructive instinct begins to display itself in many ani- 



