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Forest and Stream Letters 
The Striped Chipmonk’s Winter 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
E have kept many kinds of un- 
usual pets, but the most interest- 
ing of these was a striped chipmonk. 
We have chipmonks living in our wood- 
pile every summer and in the fall of a 
year ago our cat caught one and 
brought it to the house. It was not 
hurt, so we turned it loose in the kit- 
chen. We had it in the house all winter 
and it became very tame, would come 
up in our laps and eat. It ate any kind 
of grain and all kinds of large seeds, 
drank milk and water. 
It made itself a nest in the pantry 
in a large box, where I had put a few 
pieces of cotton batting and a piece of 
rabbit skin. It combed the cotton and 
pulled all the soft hairs out of the skin 
to line the nest with. When at home 
a big piece of cotton served as a door. 
When absent the door was left open. 
Real cold days it would stay in the 
nest all day, nice days it came out early 
and would carefully wash itself and 
comb its beautiful tail before starting 
to work. 
We always kept plenty of food for 
it in the kitchen and it was always busy 
skinning seeds or shelling corn. It 
could carry as many as 21 kernels of 
corn in its pockets, and it would re- 
quire but a few seconds to go to the 
pantry and empty the pockets into the 
box, where it was stored under the cot- 
ton. When this box was full, storing 
places were found in dresser drawers 
It did not 
chew or damage anything, so it could 
safely roam over the whole house. 
A mouse hole was found, and on nice 
days the striped chipmonk would go 
outdoors, but always came back to its 
Nice bed at dusk. 
When spring came and other chip- 
monks came out from winter quarters, 
its partner—or wife—was found and 
our chipmonk stayed outdoors after 
that. In June five young striped chip- 
monks appeard and it was great fun 
to watch them and their mother, when 
they sat on top of the woodpile, and 
the young chipmonks were’ getting a 
warm sunper. 
Our chipmonk would come and eat 
& 
with the chickens and say “chip-chip- 
chip” when we were too close. When 
fall came we often saw them come and 
go under a granary, so that is where 
we imagine our striped chipmonk is 
sleeping while I am writing this tale. 
NANCY CHRISTENSON, 
Mandan, North Dakota. 

Miss Christenson’s pet chipmonk 
Disagrees with Mr. Rhead on the 
Kingfisher Question 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
[x the February FOREST AND STREAM 
I read an article by Louis Rhead on 
the belted kingfisher. He is a very 
good artist but I think his natural his- 
tory is not of the same character as 
his art, and in justice to my friend, the 
kingfisher, I am writing this letter. 
Ever since I was a small boy I have 
been a friend of the kingfisher, and 
have observed them for over 35 years, 
and doubt if anybody enjoys a better 
field for studying this bird than I have. 
I have a farm on the head waters of 
the big Wapwallopen, which at one time 
was one of the finest trout streams in 
America, and is still good. 
About two miles of the upper reaches 
of the stream run through the farm. 
It is low bottom land, covered with al- 
ders and just the kind of place for 
trout to breed. In my opinion, instead 
of being a menace to the trout stream, 
a kingfisher is a great benefit. The 
following are my reasons for making 
this statement: 
A full-grown kingfisher is only 13% 
inches long. It is impossible for him 
to eat large fish. Furthermore, he is 
not web-footed, and consequently the 
force of his dive depends entirely upon 
the height from which he descends. 
Not being web-footed he gets no mo- 
mentum from his feet as he strikes the 
water, and it is necessary for the bird 
to be at least six feet above the water 
before he makes his dive to catch a 
fish and it is a rare thing for him to 
attempt to strike under a twelve foot 
dive. 
All young trout the size a kingfisher 
would eat lie in the small streams, 
where there is plenty of shade and 
where they are protected by all kinds 
of brush and verdure. In such a place 
it is impossible for a kingfisher to 
strike, consequently he must depend for 
food on the shoal waters in the larger 
streams. Unfortunately every trout 
stream in these days is infested with 
vermin fish, such as suckers, chubs and 
even carp. These fish live in the warm 
shoal water and are the principal food 
for kingfishers. 
It is true the birds get some trout, 
but not many, because they lie in the 
deep, cold water and are much more 
difficult to kill. The kingfisher is a 
great benefit to the modern trout 
streams, because he keeps down the 
population of vermin fish. If suckers 
and carp were allowed to grow to their 
natural size in a trout stream, half 
a dozen of them would clean out the 
food in the big pools to such an extent 
that there would not be any food left 
for the trout. It is the practice of some 
fish hatcheries to put very small trout 
in ponds. 
In that case the kingfishers would be 
attracted to the pond and would take 
great numbers of trout. It is a very 
easy matter to prevent this, however, 
by screening over the pond and would 
cost less money than to keep a watch- 
man to shoot kingfishers and other 
birds that prey upon trout under such 
223 
