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COMMON MAMMALS OK WKSTKKN MONTANA. 



INJURY TO CROPS 



Although chipmunks occasionally do much damage to peas, straw- 

 berries, or other such crops, they are chiefly harmful in wheat fields, 

 where they cut the heads from the grain, usually after the kernels 

 arc in the dough stage. Often the animals start to climb the stalk. 

 Lend it down, cut off the head, carry it to a near-by stump or fence, 

 and there hull and eat it. ( Fig. 13.) Very frequently, however, they 

 do not content themselves with this rather slow method, hut break 

 down st.dk after stalk, taking only a few kernels from each. A field 

 in which chipmunks adopt these tactics is soon seriously damaged by 

 the bending and matting together of the stalks. Such a field can 

 easily be distinguished from one injured by ground squirrels, which 

 eat oil the stalks rather close to the ground. The wheat fields in 



Fig. 14. — Seed spot of pine seeds pillaged by chipmunks. 



narrow valleys and on benches near the timber are likely to suffer 

 most severely from the depredations of these animals. 



Chipmunks and mice are both very fond of the seeds of pines, firs, 

 and other forest trees, and it is absolutely essential that areas which 

 are to he replanted he rid of these animals. Figure 14 shows a seed 

 spot dug out by chipmunks on the Cabinet National Forest. One 

 chipmunk has been seen to visit 38 seed spots in four minutes. 



POISONING CHIPMUNKS. 



Although chipmunks are not so hard to control as are Columbian 

 ground squirrels, they have the same dislike for the intensely bitter 

 taste of strychnine baits, and must therefore be poisoned in the spring 



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