most interesting because of his habits and 
because he is so common. The chipmunk is the 
camper’s friend in supplying amusement and 
entertainment, but he collects heavy toll from 
food supplies that are kept carelessly in camp. 
His habits in stealing, however, are exemplary. 
If there are two bars of chocolate in the camp 
stores which he can reach he will usually eat or 
carry away one before touching the other, 
but a pack rat will nibble at everything within 
reach. It is surprising, nevertheless, how great 
a quantity of food a small band of enterprising 
and diligent chipmunks can damage or carry out 
of camp; and so it should be remembered when 
making camp in the forest, miles away from a 
grocery, that deserted and still as the woods may 
appear to be, afurry band of robbers is more than 
likely lying in wait for booty, and everything 
edible had better be hung up or stowed safely 
away. 
The robbers of camps are not all of the fur- 
bearing kind. The bluejay and the dull black 
and gray bird called the ‘‘camp robber” are 
frequent visitors in camp and quite able to com- 
pete with the chipmunks in many respects. 
Chipmunks hide their stores in small holes and 
burrows in the ground, under logs, sticks, and 
stumps. The bluejay and the camp robber hide 
their spoils on the tops of snags and branches. 
Chipmunks steal even from the bluejays and camp 
robbers themselves. On one occasion while the 
bluejays and camp robbers were carrying things 
away from camp and hiding them in the trees, it 
was observed that the chipmunks deserted the 
camp and all started climbing trees. The camp 
robbers are perhaps the least timid of any of the 
camp visitors, and they will take bits of bread 
and food from out of the hand if their familiarity 
is at all encouraged. They are also very bold in 
carrying things away from camp, taking what 
they can in their bills or else picking it up with 
their claws. 
(21) 
The chipmunks and the birds, with the excep- 
tion of the owls, are all day workers. The mice 
and the rats work at night. Of these the mice 
will rarely be noticed. Mice sometimes store 
stolen grains in boots and shoes, and campers 
spending a night in a forest cabin may find their 
missing rice in their shoes in the morning. 
The large wood rats, commonly called pack 
rats, are often the bane of the camper. These 
large rats delight in carrying off bright objects of 
metal of any sort—spoons, jewelry, tinware, and 
the like. The camper sleeping in a forest cabin 
is often awakened by these rats trying perhaps to 
drag a pan cover or even the pan across the floor, 
and making a disturbance altogether out of pro- 
portion to their size. Nothing good can be said 
about the pack rats. Saddles, bridles, and 
leather goods left lying on the ground in camp 
will be cut and ruined almost beyond repair. 
Clothing left within reach of the wood rat may be 
sadly inadequate for wear when discovered in the 
morning, and as a consequence many campers 
have come out of the woods wearing flour-sack 
and gunny-sack patches on their clothes. If 
there are wood rats about—and usually there 
are—everything in camp should be hung up out 
of reach at night. 
Skunks are night animals particularly fond of 
fish, and will be attracted to camp if parts of fish 
or meat scraps are left unburied near by. They 
are absolutely harmless if undisturbed. They 
have been known to play about the feet of camp- 
ers while feeding at night on bits of fish left from 
cleaning a catch of trout. Care must be taken, 
however, not to make a quick movement which 
might startle the animal, with perhaps serious 
consequences. 
A common bird in the woods is the little brown 
wren, which is frequently found nesting close to 
camp under logs and usually near the water. 
The Alaska robin is also one of the common birds 
whose song cheers the early morning and evening 
