78 



RODENTS. 



leave the Adirondack region in July, since it is but seldom that there is a good 

 crop of beech-nuts in two successive years. The young are born in the spring, and 

 leave the nest by June. 



Chipmunks collect an astonishing quantity of food for the winter, which is 

 carried to its place of deposit in their capacious cheek-pouches. In addition to 

 regular storehouses, these animals lay up a portion of their winter supply here and 

 there beneath the leaves of the forest. In a hole tenanted by four chipmunks, 

 Audubon and Bachman relate that in the nest itself they found about a gill of 

 corn, and in the communicating galleries upwards of about a quart of nuts, a peck 

 of acorns, about two quarts of buckwheat, and a small quantity of Indian com and 

 grass seeds. Generally the chipmunk keeps to the ground, although it will often 

 run some few feet up the trunk of a tree, and when pursued, if its hole be not 



THE COMMON CH1P1IUXK (* Hat. -U<- . 



accessible, will take refuge among the branches. Instances are, however, on record 

 where these animals have been observed regularly ascending tall trees in search of 

 food ; and they seemed perfectly at home among the boughs, although they never 

 leapt from branch to branch after the manner of the true squirrels. 



In regard to its general mode of life, Dr. Merriam observes that " the chip- 

 munk establishes his headquarters in some log or stump, or in a hole excavated by 

 himself in the earth, generally among the roots of a tree. He is partial to brush- 

 heaps, wood piles, stone walls, rail fences, accumulations of old rubbish, and other 

 places that afford him a pretty certain escape, and at the same time enable him to 

 see what is transpiring outside. For, though by no means wary, he delights in 

 these loosely sheltered hiding-places, where he can whisk in and out at will, peep 

 unobserved at passers-by, ami dart back when prudence demands. If suddenly 

 surprised, he utters a sharp eh ip-per, r, r, r, and makes a sudden quick dash for his 

 retreat, which is no sooner reached than, simultaneously with the disappearance of 



