FIELD AND STUDY 



had his fill. At the last he began to hesitate, and to 

 hide some of the hickory-nuts here and there in the 

 grass. I was tempted to dig into his chamber at 

 once, but it seemed such a pity to bring rack and 

 ruin on his house just on the threshold of winter 

 that I deferred my investigation until spring. Then 

 I breached his walls, and to my amazement I found 

 the usual small vault such as I had found before, 

 and only a few empty shells of hickory-nuts and 

 chestnuts — not a double handful in all. It seemed 

 as if my fall observations must have been a midday 

 dream. It was all incredible. 



The owner was not at home when I forced his 

 dwelling, but he had evidently passed the winter 

 there. But where did he store all those nuts and 

 what had become of them.^^ His neighbors must 

 have decided to share them with him. 



A couple of feet from the old entrance I found a 

 new one. In all cases of dens that I have had under 

 observation during the fall, I have noticed that 

 new entrance the next spring. They are all made 

 from beneath. What becomes of the soil that the 

 chipmunk must remove in making the new hole is 

 one of the mysteries I have not yet cleared up. 

 There is no sign of it at the surface. 



The other question that long puzzled me ■ — the 

 holes that had no pile of earth, old or new — I 

 think I have solved: they are the entrances to old 

 dens that have had their pile of fresh earth near by, 



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