152 RIVERBY 



den path to and from their source of supplies in a 

 way quite unusual with these timid creatures. After 

 they had got enough cherry pits, they gathered the 

 seed of a sugar maple that stood near. Many of the 

 keys remained upon the tree after the leaves had 

 fallen, and these the squirrels harvested. They 

 would run swiftly out upon the ends of the small 

 branches, reach out for the maple keys, snip off the 

 wings, and deftly slip the nut or samara into their 

 cheek pockets. Day after day in late autumn, I 

 used to see them thus occupied. 



As I have said, I have no evidence that more 

 than one chipmunk occupy the same den. One 

 March morning after a light fall of snow I saw where 

 one had come up out of his hole, which was in the 

 side of our path to the vineyard, and after a mo- 

 ment's survey of the surroundings had started off 

 on his travels. I followed the track to see where 

 he had gone. He had passed through my woodpile, 

 then under the beehives, then around the study and 

 under some spruces and along the slope to the hole 

 of a friend of his, about sixty yards from his own. 

 Apparently he had gone in here, and then his friend 

 had come forth with him, for there were two tracks 

 leading from this doorway. I followed them to a 

 third humble entrance, not far off, where the tracks 

 were so numerous that I lost the trail. It was 

 pleasing to see the evidence of their morning socia- 

 bility written there upon the new snow. 



One of the enemies of the chipmunk, as I discov- 

 ered lately, is the weasel. I was sitting in the woods 

 one autumn day when I heard a small cry, and a 



