WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



avoid our eyes well enough in most cases simply 

 by remaining quiet. That is the self-protection 

 of the earth - colored rabbit. A gray squirrel, 

 flattened on the bark of a tree-trunk, his tail ex- 

 tended like a broad feather, is usually safe when 

 quiet, but this is never for any length of time, 

 for his nervousness and curiosity are beyond hold- 

 ing in. Your eye catches a ripple of light, and 

 you know that an irrepressible wave of energy has 

 insisted upon expression, and the next instant 

 the gray is on the opposite side of the tree, with 

 only a sooty nose and ear visible, and an eye like 

 a big jet bead. The red squirrel will control his 

 emotional tail better, but if his patience is tried 

 too long a burst of chattering c-r-r-r-r-r-acks the 

 silence of the grove. 



Though the tree-squirrels will never sit still 

 long under your gaze, the chipmunk will some- 

 times do so, apparently with as studious an in- 

 terest as you take in him. A young lady de- 

 scribed to me lately how one day last summer she 

 was sitting on a stone wall, when a chipmunk 

 crept out of its crevice near by and sat perfectly 

 quiet, watching her with the utmost intentness. 

 Her casual movements startled him a little from 

 time to time, but he never took his eyes off her, 



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