132 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA [No. 55 



in burrows or natural cavities underground. Sometimes they live in 

 hollow logs or clefts among the rocks, but the permanent homes seem 

 to be underground, where the winter stores are located near the frost- 

 proof nests. 



Breeding habits. Like other members of the townsendii group 

 these chipmunks have 4 to 6 young, born in May or June and appear- 

 ing aboveground in July. These have barely time to grow up and 

 store their winter's food before the first snows come, in September 

 or October, and bury them up for 5 or 6 months, until the March 

 thaws bring them out to begin another breeding cycle. 



Food habits. Acorns, chinquapins, hazelnuts, seeds of pines, 

 spruces, and hemlocks, cherries, berries, seeds of grasses, and a great 

 variety of plants, roots, tubers, green vegetation, flowers, insects and 

 small animal life, and around camp, scraps of bread, pancakes, 

 grains, and most camp supplies, are eaten or stored for the winter food 

 supply. They are very fond of the fruit and seeds of the little bitter 

 cherry (Prunm emarginata) and are often seen up in the bushes 

 gathering them. The writer has found as many as 112 of these little 

 cherry pits in the cheek pouches of one chipmunk, and the pulp of the 

 fruit is often found in their stomachs. Manzanita berries, currants, 

 gooseberries, raspberries, thimbleberries, blueberries, and strawberries 

 are eaten, and the seeds often separated and stored. Many species of 

 mushrooms are eaten, and the little bulbs or tubers of fireweed 

 (Gayophytum) , and traces of insect remains, are usually found in 

 the stomachs. 



They do not become fat in autumn as do most hibernating animals, 

 and the large ^stores of food laid up for winter and spring use may 

 indicate only incomplete or partial hibernation during the long, cold 

 winter of deep snows. 



Economic status. This mountain species is found mainly above 

 the zone of agriculture and its vital relations are with the forest. 

 The extent to which the forest suffers by the loss of tree seeds eaten 

 by chipmunks is not easily determined, but it may be considerable 

 at times. The habit of hoarding the food supply in deep burrows 

 prevents the general distribution of seeds as by the squirrels and 

 most of the seeds thus hoarded are eaten or if left would decay. In 

 a few cases the burrows are dug out by badgers or skunks, the chip- 

 munk eaten, and the seeds scattered; but this may not be of suffi- 

 ciently common occurrence to have a great value. On the whole a 

 large number of chipmunks must, in some cases, retard the re- 

 forestation of the mountains, especially where the lower vegetation is 

 closely grazed by domestic animals and little rodent food is obtain- 

 able except from tree seeds. In places it may be necessary in future 

 to destroy by artificial means many of the rodent population before 

 a stand of young timber can be renewed on cut-over or burnt-over 

 ground; but once a good stand of timber is established and grazing 

 controlled, there is some protection afforded the forest by the chip- 

 munks in the destruction of insects and planting of seeds. It would 

 certainly be a great mistake wholly to condemn or attempt a whole- 

 sale destruction of the chipmunks, as they have a practical value 

 besides being one of the brightest, most friendly, and attractive 

 forms of animal life in our forests, parks, and national recreation 

 areas. 



