Organic Connection Bet-ween Physical and Psijchical 5^71 



"have led nie to believe that it rarely returns to eat what it 

 has thus cached, unless driven to do so by liunfrer resulting 

 from adverse fortunes of tlie chase." ^'^ 



Nor is tliere much if any question that something of the 

 same sort occurs among- mammals wliich have the food stor- 

 ing liabit. p]. T. Seton quotes the following from Dr. John 

 Wriglit concerning the big eastern chipmunk {Tamias strin- 

 tus grisens) : "It is a most provident little creature, con- 

 tinuing to add to its winter store, if food is abundant, until 

 driven in by the severity of the frost. Indeed, it seems not 

 to know when it has enough, if we may judge by the surplus 

 left in the spring, being sometimes a peck of corn or nuts 

 for a single squirrel." ^^ There are many other statements 

 by the best authorities, especially concerning numerous spe- 

 cies of mice, which strongly suggest a like superabundance 

 of storing activities. But for the rest I w^ill mention a case 

 that has come to my own notice. 



I am indebted to jMr. Frank Stephens for information 

 about and the opportunity to witness to some extent for 

 myself the operations of the storing instinct and feeding 

 habits of the Antelope Ground-Squirrel {Amnios pcrinophi- 

 lus leucurus). This chipmunk-like little squirrel proves to 

 be so readily domesticable that it becomes almost as famihar 

 a household member, at least for ]\Ir. Stephens' household, 

 as a domestic cat. Altliougli an account of the habits of the 

 single individual in Mr. Stephens' possession can not yet be 

 told fully by a long ways, a few points of much interest 

 for the present discussion are ])ositive enough. 



In tlie first ])lace the genuinely instinctive character of 

 the storing habit is establislied by the fact tliat althougli the 

 specimen under observation was taken soon after birth, and 

 has lived all its life in complete isolation from parents and 

 all its kind and has been furnished artifii-ially with an 

 abundance of food, its storing operations are carried o?i 

 constantly and almost as perfectly, so far as one can .jiulgv. 



