344 REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



the opening, but some little distance away we find the pile, and it seems probable 

 that the chipmunk, filling his cheek pouches with the excavated earth, carries it 

 away and deposits it there. In these galleries they lay up what, for such a little 

 animal, is a very large supply of food. Audubon and Bachman, in the " Quadrupeds 

 of North America," tell of what they found in a nest occupied by four chipmunks. 

 "There was about a gill of wheat and buckwheat in the nest; but in the galleries 

 we afterwards dug out we obtained about a quart of the beaked hazelnuts 

 {Cory lus rostratits), nearly a peck of acorns, some grains of Indian corn, about 

 two quarts of buckwheat, and a very small quantity of grass seeds." Besides 

 these stores, they lay up little hoards like the gray squirrel, filling their cheek 

 pouches, which hold an astonishing amount, full of seeds or nuts and burying 

 them in the ground under the leaves. 



The chipmunk, like the other squirrels, is dependent for the greater part of 

 its food supply upon the beechnuts, and as the supply of these in the Adirondacks 

 varies from year to year the number of chipmunks also varies. Of course a 

 certain number of them are always present; but in the alternate years, when the 

 nut crop is going to be good, the chipmunks commence coming during September 

 and October. Then they lay up their winter supply, and in the spring bring 

 forth their young. In July of the year when there are no nuts, the number is at 

 its maximum, but knowing that the nut crop will fail that year, most of the 

 chipmunks start to leave in July and soon only a few are left. Besides the nuts, 

 the chipmunk has a variety of other foods. As mentioned before, it is fond of 

 grain and corn, and sometimes digs up what the farmer has planted. They also 

 occasionally eat meat, and their cheek pouches are sometimes found filled with 

 insect larvae. Stone also tells of seeing them catch and eat large grasshoppers. 

 Then, too, they dig up roots, the tuberous ones of the dwarf ginseng and the 

 squirrel corn being favorites. The chipmunks at Old Forge were observed eating 

 the seeds of the maple, from whose papery envelops they neatly extracted them. 

 Both there and at North Creek their holes could be recognized by the heaps of 

 seeds they had stripped from the spruce cones and the naked stalks. The 

 chipmunk in his search for diversity of food occasionally eats birds' eggs, but is 

 not nearly so great an offender in this respect as the red squirrel. 



When the cold days of the late fall come the chipmunk repairs to his burrow; 

 but as several weeks are supposed to elapse before he enters his winter sleep, it 

 is probable that he spends his time laying on a sufficient supply of fat to last 

 him till the spring. Then in the warm, sunny days of April and May he reappears 

 again, but should a cold wave come on he will retire to his burrow for some 

 more sleep. 



