MAY. 
179 
then poking out his head to take a sly peep at you ; then 
gone again. His note is a single chuck^ uttered at intervals 
like the cluck of a hen : he is commonly known here by the 
name of the chipmunk. 
C. — The red squirrel is a very fantastic little gentleman : 
he plays as many tricks as a monkey^ and were it not that 
he is so fond of grain, and has such very loose ideas on the 
subject of meum and tuum, he would be a universal fa- 
vourite. 
F. — As it is^ however^ he is sorely persecuted with pow- 
der and shot, and even periodical hunts are made up, as a 
kind of frolic, in which men and boys eagerly join ; any old 
rusty musket being a sufficient qualification. Two leaders 
choose sides, each alternately taking a man, till the whole 
are engaged, just as in cricket^ &c. : then they sally forth, 
and the party that brings in most squirrels is the victor ; the 
whole then adjourn to some tavern, and have a dinner, to be 
paid for by the vanquished party. Notwithstanding all this, 
and the numbers that are shot about the barns in winter by 
vindictive farmers, they are not a whit less impudent or fa- 
miliar, nor do they seem diminished in numbers. His jerks 
and motions are very amusing ; if you go under a tree where 
one is sitting, he sets himself firmly on the branch, flourishes 
his tail over his back, and looks fiercely at you, making a 
most angry chattering all the time, or rather a reiterated 
chirping ; every now and then giving a start as if he had a 
mind to fly at you, jerking his tail too with a convulsive sort 
of motion. If you are pretty close to him, you may hear at 
every chirp, and simultaneous with it, a sort of low under- 
tone of a mournful sound, something like the coo of a pigeon, 
but much shorter. 
C. — How very nimble they are ! they leap to a great dis- 
tance, and run very swiftly : I have often chased them along 
the rails of the fence, I running on the road beside it ; but 
