250 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



Our little striped squirrel or chipmunk * (Tamias 

 striatus) is one of the most interesting creatures of 

 his kind in the world. His color is chestnut-red, and 

 down his back run three distinct, 

 almost black bands with the two 

 outermost marked down the middle 

 with a line of white. The little creature 

 is astonishingly spry and moves with a 

 jerk or else sits upright with his hands 

 crossed before his breast. His tail is 

 narrow and not very long ; indeed, he is 

 altogether different from the pictures 

 which we see in English books of the 

 European squirrel (Sciurus vulqaris). 



The Chipmunk. 



He is passably tame, and I have no diffi- 

 culty in watching him for hours together at a distance 

 of not more than four feet as I am at work in my gar- 

 den. Should I happen to be in his path he will not 

 trouble himself to take a circuitous route, but will 

 skip fearlessly across my toes. Of sunflower seeds 

 he is extremely fond, and the butternuts which are 



* This is the so-called Eastern chipmunk. The four-striped 

 chipmunk (T. quadrivittus) is commonest, perhaps, in the Missis- 

 sippi Valley, and is more widely distributed over the country ; he 

 has four whitish stripes upon his back inclosed within five black 

 ones. Of course, the stripes of T. striatus can be counted as five 

 black and two white, as well as the three compound stripes I have 

 described. 



