288 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
April, 1913 
why in the fall we so often see a chip¬ 
munk looking like a small boy with 
toothache on both sides of his face. 
He stuffs his cheek pouches with 
cherry pits, nuts, grass seeds, wheat, 
apple pits and such things, which he 
carries into his underground galleries 
for winter use. It is quite surprising 
what a quantity of food the little fel¬ 
lows can carry in those pouches at one 
time. Last fall I caught a chipmunk 
who had been collecting the pits of the 
black cherry. His pouches were by 
no means fully distended, yet, when I 
made him disgorge, I took thirty-one 
pits from his right pouch and thirty- 
seven from his left—or sixty-eight in 
all. I am inclined to think that he 
could have carried 
nearly if not quite a 
Hundred. 
The red and gray 
squirrels are familiar 
to everyone, and there 
is literally no limit to 
the degree of famil¬ 
iarity on which we 
may live with them, if 
we choose. Gray 
squirrels are naturally 
disposed to be friend¬ 
ly, and the red ones, 
though inclined to be 
■suspicious, become 
very bold once they 
find that they have 
nothing to fear from 
us. They will even 
come into the house 
and make their nests 
if we give them suffi¬ 
cient encouragement, 
and I once had a red 
squirrel who lived in 
a vase on the mantel¬ 
piece of my study. 
But squirrels as intimate 
neighbors have their draw¬ 
backs. They gnaw the 
woodwork, get into the 
roofs, and if allowed in the 
house will not hesitate to de¬ 
stroy rugs or clothing when 
looking for material with 
which to build their nests. 
Worst of all, perhaps, is the 
red squirrel’s propensity for 
destroying birds’ nests. Af¬ 
ter attempting to get along 
peaceably with all my wild 
neighbors, I was at last 
■obliged to shoot a red squir¬ 
rel in my garden as he sat on 
the edge of a scarlet tana- 
ger’s nest, calmly eating the 
eggs, quite undisturbed by 
the frantic cries and actions 
of the birds. Two years ago red 
squirrels destroyed every bird’s nest 
in my garden, and as I had to decide 
between squirrels and birds, I chose in 
favor of the latter; my neighbors have 
done the same, so that now we have 
few squirrels, but far more birds than 
ever before. The gray squirrels, on 
the other hand, are not nearly so de¬ 
structive to birds, yet occasionally one 
of them gets the egg-eating habit, and 
when he does it is our duty to see that 
the birds are protected. Squirrels are 
beautiful, interesting creatures, and I 
for one am disposed to put up with a 
great deal of personal discomfort for 
the pleasure of having them about the 
garden. But the killing off of their 
natural enemies has in many places 
resulted in their increasing to the 
point where the birds have a very 
slight chance of rear¬ 
ing their broods, and 
as the country is sore¬ 
ly in need of more 
birds, it is our duty to 
take a hand in the 
game and help to re¬ 
store the balance of 
nature. 
Sometimes we may 
live in a place a long 
while before we know 
who our wild neigh¬ 
bors are. Many of 
them are so shy and 
move about so quietly 
that they see us and 
take pains to avoid us 
before we are aware 
of their presence. 
M o r eover, 
many of 
them are 
no cturnal, 
and visit our 
gardensonly 
after dark. After the snow 
comes, however, we have a 
better chance, for then the 
ground is a leaf from Na¬ 
ture’s autograph album, and 
on it each visitor not only 
writes his name, but a brief 
account of where he entered 
our grounds, where he left 
them, and what he did while 
he was within our gates. 
Perhaps we find a track 
which closely resembles that 
of a small dog, but with the 
footprints rather more in a 
straight line. It enters the 
garden from the woodland 
or the pasture, circles the 
hen-house, with a pause at 
every crack, passes on to- a 
Porcupines are among the queerest and 
crustiest of our wild animal neighbors 
Occasionally you may come upon a raccoon at the edge of a stream, deftly strip¬ 
ping an ear of corn before washing it 
There is an old woodchuck neighbor with whom I am on intimate terms 
