In the Sierra 



on top of their wigwams, looking at the 

 stranger with the mildest of wild eyes, and 

 allowing a near approach. In the centre of 

 the rough spiky hut a soft nest is made of 

 the inner fibres of bark chewed to tow, and 

 lined with feathers and the down of vari- 

 ous seeds, such as willow and milkweed. 

 The delicate creature in its prickly, thick- 

 walled home suggests a tender flower in a 

 thorny involucre. Some of the nests are 

 built in trees thirty or forty feet from the 

 ground, and even in garrets, as if seeking 

 the company and protection of man, like 

 swallows and linnets, though accustomed to 

 the wildest solitude. Among housekeepers 

 Neotoma has the reputation of a thief, be- 

 cause he carries away everything transport- 

 able to his queer hut, knives, forks, 

 combs, nails, tin cups, spectacles, etc., 

 merely, however, to strengthen his forti- 

 fications, I guess. His food at home, as far 

 as I have learned, is nearly the same as that 

 of the squirrels, - - nuts, berries, seeds, and 

 [97 ] 



