The Washington weekly post., 1899-07-04
HOW SQUIRRELS sUBslsT.
The Prudent Little Animals Forethought
for Winter.

From Lppincotts.
The popular notion that squirrels OF all
sorts subsist wholly on nuts arises from
limited not to say careless, observation
Their food is widely varied in the course
of year, especially in the spring and
summer Indian corn in the milk suHers
more from squirrels than from raccoons
or muskrats, which are proVerDiaiiy so
fond of it. In places on the western IRON
tier an expensive system of watching mas
had TO be maintained at times against
this pest One dainty in late summer Is the
mushroom, of several varieties or wnich
they are fond; and this reminds me or
bit of unexpected sagacity in one OF the
western chipmunks lately spoken OF In
my hearing by the artist and author, Er-
nest Seton Thompson. 1t appears tnat
This chipmunk depends for its ordinary
fall and winter fare upon the seeds OF
the pinon pine, which it preserves by
storage In its holes in decayed stumps
or underground. 1t happened lately. how
ever, that in a certain area of the North
west the pinon crop was a complete fail
ure. and the ground-squirrels were com
PEELED to find something else for their
subsistence and winter stores. In this
extremity they turned to the mushrooms,
everywhere abundant and were busy dur
ing all the late autumn in gathing them.
They were too wise, however, TO store
them underground, where they would
soon have rotted, but instead deposited
them In notches and crOtches of the lower
branches of the forest trees, where they
dried in the open air and 80 kept in good
rcopdition to be eaten. Their shriVeling
I'D and the shaking of the branches by
the winds caused many TO fall, and these
the squirrels industriously picked up and
tried to fasten more securely to the
branches.
This method of providing themselves
with winter food implied the necessity
of their coming forth from their under
ground retreats, no matter how cold ana
snowy the weather whenever they wanted
something to eat, instead of having their
harder indoors. as Is usual with them
and il would be interesting TO know
whether they actually did so, or whether
they failed to profit, after all, by thelr
seemingly sagacous prudence.
An acquaintance surprised me the otner
day by the question; WHAT Is chip-
rel?" | thought everybody knew this gay
sprite of the roadsides, He is true squlr-
rel, about the size of the common RED one,
and of the same reddish tone, which, ike
1
T, in vyintar than in summer, when the long,
warm. handsome fur, suitable for cold
weather and the nuptial time, is replaced
by a warm weather suit OF cooler
shorter, and paler sort. His Distinguishing
marks are two white stripes along the
side Of the back from the fore-shoulder Ia
| the root Of the tail. each Dordered by a
! black line making him the prettiest OF
our lesser quadrupeds, and giving 10 mn,
| as Win erect ears and trailing, bushy
| tail he scuds along the fence or scampers
| i'm and out of a brush pile-foT he Is a
| true ground squirrel, rarely going even
upon the trunk OF tree-an air OF dandy
pride and alertness that Is most engaging
| In the far West there are four-lined and
| checkered ones,
our chlpmunk is the familiar of the old
| stone wall and where In some parts OF
| the country these are disappearing, the
| cbipmunk Is disappearing, too, while many
| a skunk and WoOdehuck also find them
| selves dispossesstd.