474 



REPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



therefore gathers it hastily and carries it to his burrow and stores 

 it there to be eaten at leisure. A quantity is stored up for winter 

 use, for these animals, unlike the woodchuck, do not sleep soundly 

 all through the cold season. They can still be seen scampering 

 about during the warm days in early December, and I have little 

 doubt that they come out sometimes during the warm days of mid- 

 winter, although I have never seen them during the last half of 

 December, nor in January and February. 



I am not able to say just how they spend the winter months. It 

 is pretty generally believed that they awaken now and then and 

 eat some of the food they have stored up. 



Certainly they have need of awakening sometimes, for the sites 

 of their winter homes are not always well chosen. In the autumn 

 of 1906 I noticed that one of these animals was making its home 

 under the roots of a small black gum tree standing on the edge of 

 a sinkhole. It was frequently seen carrying acorns into this den 

 during the late autumn and undoubtedly selected the place for its 

 winter sleep. In January a heavy rain flooded the sinkhole and 

 the water stood above the level of the chipmunk's hole for several 

 weeks. I did not see the animal either then or afterwards, and 

 never learned whether it escaped or was drowned during its winter 

 sleep. 



This species, like many others with similar habits, has undoubt- 

 edly thrived as the land has been cleared and tilled by man. Al- 

 though sometimes found in the woods, it is not fond of the dense 

 forests and was not abundant when white men first came to the 

 State. With their coming many of its chief enemies disappeared or 

 were reduced in numbers. 



It is most abundant at the present time in the fields that are 

 partially overgrown with bushes and covered with stones. How- 

 ever, it is not averse to living in close proximity to man, and I have 

 known a chipmunk to make its home under the front veranda of a 

 house occupied by a quiet couple who did not molest their little 

 neighbor. At Indiana University a colony has lived for years in 

 the foundation of Owen Hall, all unconscious that some of their 

 pickled or skinned relatives were within, and that animals by the 

 hundreds were })eing dissected in the zoological lalmratories just 

 over their heads. 



Economic status. — In some instances chipninnks do much dam- 

 age by digging n[) Ihe sprouting corn from llie rows. In such cases 

 the s(|nirrels shonld be poisoned, tra])ped or shot. A b(>1ter way is 

 to keep the fieUls free from heaps of stone, brush or rnbbish of any 



