236 MAMMALIA. 



" Presently, however, he became comparatively quiet. In this 

 state he remained, possibly, half a minute. Me then commenced 

 a vigorous action, as if di^'^ino- deeper ; Init I noticed that he did 

 not get deeper ; on the contrar)-, he was gradualh' backing out. I 

 was surprised that, in all his apparent hard work (he worked like a 

 man on a waLi'er) he threw back no dirt. iUit this \iL'()rous labor 

 could not last long. He was ver)' soon completely above ground ; 

 and then became manifest the object of his earnest work : he was 

 refilling the hole he had made, and rei)acking the dirt and leaves 

 he had disturbed. Nor was he content with simpl)- refilling and 

 repacking the hole. With his two little hand-like feet he patted 

 the surface, and so exactly replaced the leaves that, when he had 

 completed his task, my eye could detect^not the slightest difference 

 between the surface he had so cunningly manipulated, and that 

 surrounding it. Having completed his task, he raised himself into 

 a sitting posture, looked with a very satisfied air, and then silently 

 dodged off into a bush-heap, some ten feet distant. Here he 

 ventured to stop, and set up a triumphant 'chip ! chip ! chip !' 



" It was now my turn to dig, in order to discover the little 

 miser's treasures. I gently removed enough of the leaves and fine 

 muck to expose his hoard — half a pint of buttercup seeds, ]\a}inn- 

 ctihis aci'isy * 



On the western side of the Adirondack region the Chipmunk 

 feeds largely upon the tuberous roots of the dwarf ginseng or 

 ground-nut (Aralia trifolla), and the yellow grain-like tubers of 

 the unspurred dicentra or squirrel corn {Dicenlra Canadensis). 

 The wMuged seeds of the maple can also be ranked among his staple 

 articles of diet. In June of the present year (1884), Mr. \V. E. 

 Bryant shot a Chipmunk, in Lewis Count)', whose cheek-pouches 

 contained a number of larva: and pupa: of insects. 



Of the six species of squirrels known to occur in the Adirondacks, 

 the present is the only one belonging to the group of ground 



* American Naturalist, Vol. IV, No. 4, June, 1870, p. 249. 



