'S IiITTIiE STORE-KEEPER. 



ONE of the most familiar of North American quadrupeds 

 is the Hackee, or Chipping Squirrel, as he is some- 

 times termed, from the strange, quaint utterances which he 

 emits while rollicking with his fellows or in quest of some- 

 thing to eat. He is a beautiful little creature, notable alike 

 for the dainty elegance of his form and for the pleasing tints 

 with which his dress is arrayed. His general color is 

 brownish-gray upon the back, warming into orange-brown 

 upon the forehead and hinder quarters. Five longitudinal 

 black stripes and two streaks of yellowish-white adorn the 

 dorsum and sides, which render him a most conspicuous 

 being and one readily distinguishable from any other animal. 

 His abdomen and throat are white. He is slightly variable 

 in color according to locality, and has been known to be 

 so capricious of hue as to become a pure white or a jetty 

 black. But for the commonness of the species, which is 

 found in great numbers in almost every place, his fur, from 

 its extreme beauty, would long since have taken nearly as 

 high rank as sable or ermine. 



No quadruped is so brisk or so lively. His quick, rapid 

 movements have not inaptly compared him to the wren. 

 As he whisks about the branches of the brushwood and small 

 timber among which he is chiefly met, or shoots through their 

 interstices with his peculiar jerking movements, and his odd 

 clicking cry, like the chip-chipping of newly-hatched chickens, 

 the analogy between himself and the bird is strikingly appar- 

 ent. Occurring in great plenty, and being a bold little 

 creature, he is much persecuted by small boys, who, with 



