MAMMALIA. 
138 
“ Presently, however, he became comparatively quiet. In this 
state he remained, possibly, half a minute. He then commenced 
a vigorous action, as if digging deeper ; but I noticed that he did 
not get deeper ; on the contrary, he was gradually backing out. I 
was surprised that, in all his apparent hard work (he worked like a 
man on a wager) he threw back no dirt. But this vigorous labor 
could not last long. He was very soon completely above ground ; 
and then became manifest the object of his earnest work : he was 
refilling the hole he had made, and repacking the dirt and leaves 
he had disturbed. Nor was he content with simply 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, Ranun- 
culus acids." * 
On the western side of the Adirondack region the Chipmunk 
feeds largely upon the tuberous roots of the dwarf ginseng or 
ground-nut (Aralia trifolia'), and the yellow grain-like tubers of 
the unspurred dicentra or squirrel corn ( Dicentra Canadensis). 
The winged seeds of the maple can also be ranked among his staple 
articles of diet. In June of the present year (1884), Mr. W. E. 
Bryant shot a Chipmunk, in Lewis County, whose cheek-pouches 
contained a number of larvae and pupae 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. 
