OUR FOUR-FOOTED NEIGHBORS. 313 



throughout July they appeared to do little but play, which 

 sporting, by the way, is very animated. They seem to be 

 playing at what children know as "tag," i. e., they chase 

 each other to and fro, and try not simply to touch, we 

 should judge, but to bite each other's tail. 



6. The way in which they scamper along the tapering 

 points of a paling fence is simply astonishing ; but how- 

 ever mad may be their galloping, let a hawk come near, 

 and in a moment every one is motionless. If on a fence, 

 they simply scpiat wherever they may be at the time, and 

 trust to remaining unnoticed. If on the ground, and not 

 too far from their burrows, which is not often the case, 

 they will dart to their nests with an incredible celerity, 

 going, we believe, the whole length of their passage-way to 

 the nest, turning about, and retracing their steps to the 

 entrance, from which they will peer out, and, when the 

 danger is over, reappear and recommence their sports. 



7. About August 15th they commenced to work in real 

 earnest. Instead of playful, careless creatures, that lived 

 from hand to mouth, they became very sober and busy in- 

 deed. Instead of keeping comparatively near home, they 

 wandered to quite a distance, for them, and, filling both 

 cheek-pouches full of corn, chincapins (dwarf chestnuts), 

 and small acorns, home they would hurry, looking, in the 

 face, like children with the mumps. This storing away 

 of food was continued until the first heavy white frosts, 

 when the chipmunks, as a member of Congress once said, 

 went "into a state of retiracy." 



8. The food gathered, we believe, is consumed in part 

 on their going into winter quarters, they spending some 

 time in their retreats before commencing their hibernating 

 sleep. This belief, on our part, is based on the result of 

 digging out a third nest on the 3d of November. The last 

 time we noted down seeing a chipmunk belonging to a cer- 

 tain nest was October 22d. Twelve days after we very 



