BEASTS, BIRDS, AND FISH. 79 



young chicken in its talons. I leapt to my feet and 

 gave chase, and was fortunate enough to come up 

 with the feathered highwayman just as he was pre- 

 paring to tear his prey to pieces. A lucky fling with 

 a stone over a clump of intervening bushes so startled 

 him that he took flight, leaving the chicken behind 

 him. I picked up the fluttering creature, and though 

 its skin was badly torn under its leg, it recovered, 

 and lived to grow up into a profitable pullet. 



Up on the bench-land at Bonnington there was 

 yet a third animal which, we were given to under- 

 stand, had a penchant for tiny chickens. This was 

 the gopher, a species of marmot, a creature whose 

 external appearance combines the familiar features of 

 the rabbit and the rat. Fortunately, the gophers re- 

 mained up on the bench-land, and never came down 

 as far as our poultry yard. In fact, as we broke up 

 the ground on the bench, and destroyed their burrows, 

 they gradually disappeared. 



After the gophers disappeared, we were visited by 

 another somewhat similar animal, which also lived in 

 a burrow in the ground. This was the chipmunk, or 

 ground squirrel. A pretty little creature, the nimblest 

 animal I ever saw. To see the chipmunks running 

 along the tops of the fences, stopping suddenly, 

 tilting backwards on their haunches, and patting their 

 mouth with their forepaws, first one side and then 

 the other, with almost incredible quickness, was 

 indescribably funny. We all thought them charming 

 little animals, until we discovered they had a certain 

 habit. This w-as to run all over the plum and pear 

 trees and nibble tiny chunks first out of one fruit, 

 then out of another. Had they stuck to one and the 



