Ch.pmunk 
next as he disappeared. The hawk vanished among the trees and 
evidently succeeded in deceiving the squirrels into thinking that 
he had betaken himself to other hunting grounds, for after per- 
haps ten minutes of anxious shouting between neighbouring door- 
ways they quieted down and resumed the interrupted course of 
their affairs; some of them searching about in the short grass 
for beechnuts dropped by the jays, while others started on longer 
excursions through the woods and a few of the younger ones 
began playing together among the last year’s leaves beside the 
wall. 
But one or two took prominent positions on the highest 
stones of the wall as if standing sentinel, and at pretty regular 
intervals called a warning to the others, or perhaps it was the 
cry of ‘‘All’s well,” for by this time even the jays appeared to 
have forgotten the danger and were chuckling and squealing 
among themselves as they gathered beechnuts overhead. 
None of them apparently paid any attention to the angry 
stuttering of a red squirrel in a great oak, and | am inclined to 
believe that red squirrels, like the shepherd boy in the fable, have so 
often cried wolf without cause that the other wood-dwellers have 
learned to distrust them. 
But this one evidently knew what he was about and a sudden 
hysterical explosion in the midst of his clamour and then silence was 
followed by the reappearance of the hawk from his ambush among 
the oak leaves dashing this way and that after the scattering chip- 
munks. He failed, however, as before in each attempt, and, as if 
mistrusting that the red squirrel might be the cause of all: his ill luck, 
rose in the air and rushed headlong at him as he clung to the under 
side of the branch. There was a short and very exciting chase 
before the squirrel succeeded in reaching the safety of his hole and the 
hawk flapped away disappointed. 
The winter hibernation of the chipmunk is much like that 
of the dormouse of the Old World, though unlike the dormouse 
and most other hibernating animals, chipmunks are seldom more 
than comfortably fat on retiring in the autumn. 
As several weeks are generally believed to elapse before the 
final sleep of winter overtakes them, it is quite probable that 
they occupy themselves in the meantime with acquiring a suf- 
ficient amount of fat to carry them on until spring. 
In April and May chipmunks are pretty sure to be out in 
165 
