%^ DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK 



in the box which had been cut for the mice, but, 

 as every thing seemed peaceful and mice un- 

 harmed, there was apparently no reason for 

 separating them, so the mice and their big cousins 

 were allowed to sleep together. The mice ap- 

 peared perfectly willing to do this, but the chip- 

 munks, it seemed, had their own idea of the man- 

 ner in which this should be done. At the end of 

 two days all five mice were resting 



INSIDE THE CHIPMUNKS! 



In capturing its prey the chipmunk springs 

 upon a mouse, and grasping it in its arm, severs 

 the jugular with its chisel-like teeth. It then eats 

 the eyes of its victim, next its brain, and after that 

 the rest of its body, bones and all. The neatness 

 and dispatch with which they do this, and the man- 

 ner in which they leave the skin of the mouse 

 intact with only the feet, tail, and skull attached, 

 plainly indicates that the chipmunk is no novice 

 at this sort of work. A young friend of mine 

 now employed in the Museum of Natural History 

 at Central Park, tells me that he shot a chipmunk 

 with the fresh scalp of another chipmunk in its 

 hands. From my own observations I think that 

 at times all rodents are cannibals. 



Once having captured 



A VERY LARGE GARTER SNAKE 



I put it in with the chipmunks, not for the pur- 

 pose of causing trouble, but because the chipmunks 



