st
thousands, and whenever one looked across the yard in sunny hours one
could see a dozen or more together.

The old mill was infested with them as an old brewery with rats. But in
many respects besides beauty they were an improvement on rats: they did
not smell, they were not vicious, and they did not move by night.

[Illustration]

During the daytime they were everywhere and into everything. Our slender
stock of provisions was badly reduced when, by mischance, the tin box
was left open a few hours, but we loved to see so much beautiful life
about and so forgave them. One of our regular pleasures was to sit back
after a meal and watch these pert-eyed, four-legged birds scramble onto
the table, eat the scraps and lick all the plates and platters clean.

Like all the Chipmunks and Ground-squirrels, this animal has
well-developed cheek-pouches which it uses for carrying home seeds and
roots which serve for food in the winter. Or perhaps we should say in
the early spring, for the Chipmunk, like the Ground-squirrel, goes into
the ground for a long repose as soon as winter comes down hard and
white.

Yet it does not go so early or stay so late as its big cousin. October
still sees it active, even running about in the snow. As late as October
31st at Breckenridge, Col., I saw one sitting up on a log and eating
some grass or seeds during a driving snowstorm. High up in the
Shoshonees, after winter had settled down, on October 8, 1898, I saw one
of these bright creatures bounding through the snow. On a stone he
paused to watch me and I made a hasty sketch of his attitude.

[Illustration]

Then, again, it is out in the spring, early in April, so that it is
above ground for at least seven months of the year. Its nest is in a
chamber at the end of a long tunnel that it digs under ground, usually
among roots that make hard digging for the creatures that would rout
them out. Very little is known as yet, however, about the growth or
development of the young, so here is an opportunity for the young
naturalist who would contribute something to our knowledge of this
interesting creature.

A STRIPED PIGMY--THE LEAST CHIPMUNK

Closely akin to this one and commonly mistaken for its young, is the
Least Chipmunk (_Eutamias minimus_), which is widely diffused in the
great dry central region of the Continent. Although so generally found
and so visible when found, its history is practically unknown. It
probably lives much like it