CHIPPING SQUIRREL. 71 



in patches a foot deep ; we remarked, however, that they remained only 

 for half au hour, when they again retreated to their burrows. 



The young are produced in May, to the number of four or five at a 

 birth, and we have sometimes supposed from the circumstance of seeing 

 a young brood in August, that they breed twice a year. 



The Chipping Squirrel does but little injury to the farmer. It seldom 

 disturbs the grain before it is ripe, and is scarcely more than a gleaner 

 of the fields, coming in for a small pittance, when the harvest is nearly 

 gathered. It prefers wheat to rye, seems fond of buckwheat, but gives 

 the preference to nuts, cherry-stones, the seeds of the red gum, or pepper- 

 idge, {Nyssa MuUijlora,) and those of several annual plants and grasses. 



This species is easily captured. It enters almost any kind of trap with- 

 out suspicion. We have seen a beautiful muff and tippet made of a host 

 of little skins of this Tamias ingeniously joined together so as to give the 

 appearance of a regular series of stripes around the muff, and longitudi- 

 nally along the sides of the tippet. The animals had in most cases been 

 captured in rat-traps. 



There is, besides, a simple, rustic, but effectual mode of hunting the 

 Ground Squirrel, to w^hich w^e are tempted to devote a paragraph. 



Man has his hours of recreation, and so has the school-boy ; while the 

 former is fond of the chase, and keeps his horses, dogs, and guns, the lat- 

 ter, when released from school, gets up a little hunt, agreeable to his own 

 taste and limited resources. The boys have not yet been allowed to carry 

 fire-arms, and have been obliged to adhere to the command of a careful 

 mother — " do n't meddle with that gun, Billy, it may go off and kill you" 

 But the Chip Muck can be hunted without a gun, and Saturday, the 

 glorious weekly retiu-n of their freedom and independence from the 

 crabbed schoolmaster and the puzzling spelling-book, is selected for the 

 important event. 



There are some very pleasing reminiscences associated with these little 

 sports of boyhood. The lads, full of delightful anticipations, usually meet 

 half an hoiu- before the time appointed. They come with their " shining 

 morning faces," full of glee and talking of their anticipated success. In 

 lieu of fire-arms they each carry a stick, about eight feet long. They 

 go along the old fashioned worm-fences that skirt the woods, a crop of 

 wheat or of buckwheat has just been gathered, and the little Hackee 

 is busily engaged in collecting its winter store. 



In every direction its lively chirrup is heard, with answering calls from 

 adjacent parts of the woods, and here and there you may observe one 

 mounted on the top of a fence-stake, and chipping away as it were in ex- 

 ultation at his elevated seat. One of the tiny huntsmen now places his 



