AUTUMN FLOWERS, SQUIRRELS. 251 



so common among the old pasture lands of the 

 southern White Mountains are his trees of plenty. 



The chipmunk is a stone wall squirrel. He is a 

 very poor tree climber, and when he meets the red 

 squirrel on a low bough he instantly concedes to him 

 the right of way. But on the stone wall he will 

 chase his red cousin from Dan to Beersheba, al- 

 though I have never yet found him engaged in a 

 fight to protect his right of eminent domain. On 

 the contrary, I have long since concluded that the 

 chickaree or red squirrel * {Sciii^-'us f Tludsonius), 

 quite a little larger than the chipmunk, and of au 

 even, burnt sienna-red color, with a black streak 

 on his flank, is an aggressive and quarrelsome 

 individual, disposed to attack his chipmunk cousin 

 or one of his own species on the slightest provo- 

 cation. I have seen him chase another squirrel 

 around the trunk of a butternut, which was his 

 castle and home, no less than twenty-five times in 

 the space of half a minute. He has a noble fashion 

 of vociferously claiming whole tracts of wooded 

 country as exclusively his own — at least we may be- 

 lieve so if we have learned to understand his words 



* His range is throughout North America as far as the forests 

 extend. 



f This name in Greek means "he who is under the shadow of 

 his tail," which hardly applies to our short-tailed chipmunk and 

 chickaree. 



