24: SQUIRRELS AND OTHER FUR-BEARERS 



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 



O f 



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 

 sociability written there upon the new snow. 



One of the en v emies of the chipmunk, as I dis- 

 covered lately, js_the_-weasel. I was sitting in 

 the woods one autumn day when I heard a small 

 cry, and a rustling amid the branches of a tree 

 a few rods beyond me. Looking thither I saw 

 a chipmunk fall through the air, and catch on a 

 limb twenty or more feet from the ground. He 

 appeared to have dropped from near the top of 

 the tree. 



He secured his hold upon the small branch 

 that had luckily intercepted his fall, and sat per- 

 fectly still. In a moment more I saw a weasel 

 one of the smaller red varieties come down 

 the trunk of the tree, and begin exploring the 

 branches on a level with the chipmunk. 



I saw in a moment what had happened. The 

 weasel had driven the squirrel from his retreat in 



