Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1911-09-01
FRIDAY. SEPTEMBER I, 1911.
CLEVERNESS OF CHIPMUNKS
Extraordinary Neatness of the En-
trance to Their Homes.

WV
time he takes the trouble to pay close
attention to even the old familiar phases
of nature. There's the chipmunk, for
instance. Like many other men who re-
member boyhood days, Burroughs con-
siders the chipmunk an old acquant-
ance. But that doesn't alter the fact
that he has just found out whole lot of
new things about the little fellow.
81 had frequently noticed a fresh pile
of earth on the grass near stone fence
or in the orchard or at the edge of the
woods" he says in Country Life in Am
erica. Usually there were several
pecks of new earth carefully put down
on the ground without any visible clue
as to where it came from. But a search
in the grass or leaves usually discloses
its source-a little round hole nearly cut
through the turf.
81 came upon ten such mounds on a
single farm, and in every case the hole
was from one to six feet from the pile
of earth. In every case also the hole
had been dug for some feet underground
and several pecks of fresh earth removed
to distance of few feet without the
least speck of soil or trace of footprints
near the entrance.
All this half bushel of earth the chip
munk must have carried out in his cheek
pockets and he must have made hun
dreds of trips between the hole and the
dump. Yet if he had flown like bird
he could not have left less trace on the
turf. And if he had cut through the
turf with an auger he could not have
made neater job.
1t was hard to believe that the deliver
did not come up from below and have a
back door from whence he carried his
soil some yards away. Indeed, | have
heard this theory stated. Look under
the pile of earth, said friend who was
with me and who had observed the work
of the pocket gopher in the West, and
you will find the back door there. But
it was not so. | carefully removed four
piles of earth and dug away the turf be-
meath them, and no hole was to be
found.
Zone day we found pile of earth in
a meadow, and near it hole less than
two inches deep, showing where the
chipmunk had begun to dig and had
struck stone; then he went a foot or
more up the hill and began again; here
he soon struck stones as before, then
he went still further up the HILL and
this time was successful in penetrating
the SOIL
This was conclusive proof that these
round holes are cut from above and not
from below, as we often see in the case
of the woodchuck hole. The squirrel
apparently gnaws through the turf in
stead of digging through, and carries
away the loosened material in his
mouth, never dropping or scattering a
grain of it.
1.-The absence of anything like trail
or beaten way from the mound of earth
to the hole, or anything suggesting pass
ing feet, | understood better when later
in the season day after day | saw a
chipmunk carrying supplies into his den,
which was in the turf by the roadside
about ten feet from a stone wall. He
covered the distance by a series of short
jumps, apparently striking each time
upon his toes between the spears of
grass and leaving no marks whatever
by which his course could be traced
This was also his manner of leaving the
hole.
There was mystery about some of
the holes that was absolutely battling to
me. In at least three mounds of fresh
earth found freshly dug stones that |
could not by any manipulation get back
into the hole out of which they seemed
to have come. They We're all covered
with fresh earth and were in the pile of
soil with many other smaller stones.
1T was physical impossibility for
the stones to have come out of the hole
from whence the mound of earth and
the lesser stones evidently came, yet
how came they in the pile of earth
freshly earth stained. The matter stood
thus with me for some weeks; | was up
against little problem in natural his
tory that could not solve.
Late in November visited the scene
of the squirrel holes again and at last
got the key to the mystery; the cunning
little deliver cuts groove in one side of
the hole just large enough to let the
stone through, then packs it full of soil
again.
when made my November visit it
had been showing and raining and freez-