Fomily SCIURIDAE 141 



proaches, since it will not need to rely on a reserve supply of fat 

 for nourishment when food becomes scarce but instead will 

 retire to a well-filled pantry. It becomes dormant during ex- 

 cessively cold weather at any time between November and April 

 but may come above ground during warm periods. It does not 

 seem to hibernate in the sense that ground squirrels do. 



It is possible for a pair of chipmunks to rear two litters of 

 young each year. The first litter usually arrives in late April 

 and the second about August. There are five or six young in 

 each litter. When a month old, the young are nearly two-thirds 

 grown and appear outside the burrow. 



The chipmunk is preyed upon by hawks, weasels, foxes, cats, 

 and other animals. Probably its greatest enemy is man, who 

 through his agricultural endeavors has destroyed much of its 

 natural habitat. 



Signs. — Although the chipmunk sometimes emerges in w r inter 

 and sets foot in snow, the best places to look for its tracks 

 are dusty forest paths. The tracks are somewhat like tracks of 

 squirrels but smaller and with less tendency for the prints of 

 the front feet to pair. 



The burrow is less than IV? inches in diameter. The en- 

 trance characteristically has no mound when finished and is 

 usually hidden away under a log, a stone pile, or roots of trees. 



Distribution. — The eastern chipmunk may occur in all coun- 

 ties of Illinois but usually it is restricted to unpastured woods 

 in hilly regions. It is most abundant in rocky, wooded ravines. 

 Two subspecies are believed to be present in Illinois, Tamias 

 striatus ohionensis Bole & Moulthrop in the Wabash and Ohio 

 river valleys and T. s. griseus Mearns in the remainder of the 

 state. The range of the species embraces most of southern 

 Canada from eastern Quebec to southern Manitoba and most 

 of eastern United States except the far south. 



TAMIASCIURUS HUDSONICUS (Erxleben) 



Red Squirrel" 



Description. — The red squirrel, fig. 80, is smaller than the 

 fox squirrel or the gray squirrel. It is reddish gray on the back 

 and whitish on the belly; it has a black line on the sides between 



*This squirrel should not be confused with the fox squirrel, which is sometimes 

 called the red squirrel in Illinois. 



