WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



Spring and vsummer. Indian corn in the milk 

 suffers more from squirrels than from raccoons or 

 muskrats, which are proverbially so fond of it. 

 In places on the Western frontier an expensive 

 system of watching has had to be maintained at 

 times against this pest. One dainty in late sum- 

 mer is the mushroom, of several varieties of which 

 they are fond ; and this reminds me of a bit of un- 

 expected sagacity in one of the Western chipmunks 

 lately spoken of in my hearing by an observer of it. 

 It appears that this chipmunk depends for its 

 ordinary fall and winter fare upon the seeds of 

 the pifion pine, which it preserves by storage in 

 its holes in decayed stumps or underground. It 

 happened lately, how^ever, that in a certain area of 

 the Northwest the pinon crop was a complete failure, 

 and the ground-squirrels were compelled to find 

 something else for their subsistence and w^inter 

 stores. In this extremity they turned to the mush- 

 rooms, everywhere abundant, and were busy 

 during all the late autumn in gathering them. 

 They were too wise, however, to store them under- 

 ground, where they would soon have rotted, but 

 instead deposited them in notches and crotches of 

 the lower branches of the forest trees, where they 

 dried in the open air and so kept in good condition 



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