@n (^Iccounf irit§ (Tlatur(^ 



home nest, where the family could get at their pro- 

 visions in bad weather without coming forth. 



Had I removed the stones and dug out the nest, 

 I should have found a tunnel leading into the ground 

 for a few feet and opening into a chamber filled with 

 a bulky grass nest, — a bed capable of holding half a 

 dozen chipmunks, and adjoining this, by a short pas- 

 sageway, the storehouse of the oats. 



How many trips they made between this crib and 

 the oat patch, how many kernels they carried in their 

 pouches at a trip, and how big a pile they had when 

 all the grains were in, — these are more of the ques- 

 tions I should like to know. 



I might have killed one of the squirrels and num- 

 bered the contents of his pouches, but my scientific 

 zeal does not quite reach that pitch any more. The 

 knowledge of just how many oat kernels a chipmunk 

 can stuff into his left cheek (into both cheeks he can put 

 twenty-nine kernels of corn) is really not worth the 

 cost of his life. Of course some one has counted 

 them, — just as some one has counted the hairs on 

 the tail of the dog of the child of the wife of the Wild 

 Man of Borneo, or at least seriously guessed at the 

 number. 



187 



