NATURE’S LITTLE STORE-KEEPER. 
NE of the most familiar of North American quadrupeds 
is the Hackee, or Chipping Squirrel, as he is some- 
times termed, from the strange, quaint utterances which he 
emits while rollicking with his fellows or in quest of some- 
thing to eat. He is a beautiful little creature, notable alike 
for the dainty elegance of his form and for the pleasing tints 
with which his dress is arrayed. His general color is 
brownish-gray upon the back, warming into orange-brown 
upon the forehead and hinder quarters. Five longitudinal 
black stripes and two streaks of yellowish-white adorn the 
dorsum and sides, which render him a most conspicuous 
being and one readily distinguishable from any other animal. 
His abdomen and throat are white. He is slightly variable 
in color according to locality, and has been known to be 
so capricious of hue as to become a pure white or a jetty 
black. But for the commonness of the species, which is 
found in great numbers in almost every place, his fur, from 
its extreme beauty, would long since have taken nearly as 
high rank as sable or ermine. 
No quadruped is so brisk or so lively. His quick, rapid 
movements have not inaptly compared him to the wren. 
As he whisks about the branches of the brushwood and small 
timber among which he is chiefly met, or shoots through their 
interstices with his peculiar jerking movements, and his odd 
clicking cry, like the chip-chipping of newly-hatched chickens, 
the analogy between himself and the bird is strikingly appar- 
ent. Occurring in great plenty, and being a bold little 
creature, he is much persecuted by small boys, who, with 
