

Chipmunk 
drying out around the stumps of long-forgotten pines. In 
a way they are hunters, too; I have seen them chasing 
the big, noisy, banded-winged locusts of late summer, running 
beneath them, as they fly along and pouncing on them when 
they finally come to earth. One of these big fellows must make 
a very Satisfactory luncheon for an animal no larger than a chip- 
munk, everything being eaten but the wings and the extremities 
of the legs. 
Like most rodents, they are a little too fond of robbing 
birds’ nests; I am inclined to think, however, that they are less 
destructive in this direction than either squirrels or mice. I once 
watched a pair of them stalking some spotted sandpipers by the 
edge of a mill pond. They would creep up under cover of the 
water weed, or lie in ambush behind dried wood or a lily pad 
standing aslant in the mud; when they fancied themselves near 
enough they would rush out, sometimes both together, and the 
frightened sandpipers would open their long wings and lose some 
critical moments in getting their balance, and then take their 
stiff-winged flight low over the water with anxious whistlings. 
The chipmunks were so active and determined about it all 
that, seeing them from the other bank, I at first mistook them 
for weasels. The sandpipers at last betook themselves away up 
stream to the meadows to be rid of the nuisance. 
June 5th, 1900, I have just been examining the chipmunk 
holes on the hill in the pasture. They are, evidently enough, 
all constructed in about the same manner, the chief object in 
view being concealment. All agree in having the opening no- 
ticeably smaller than the rest of the tunnel. The short, thick grass 
around it is green and untrampled to the very edge, and though 
scarcely an inch in length, pretty well conceals the narrow door- 
way. There is not the least particle of loose dirt scattered any- 
where about. 
The turf at the mouth of the burrow is soft and elastic, 
but at the depth of an inch the hole becomes suddenly larger, 
I should say at least twice as large as at the opening, and the 
walls are packed surprisingly hard. 
At a considerable distance, under the low-growing Pesce: 
of some young pines, | found a little pile of newly-dug earth, 
something over a foot in diameter and two or three inches high. 
Yellow subsoil undoubtedly brought there as fast as it was dug 
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