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Show ANOTHER MATURE FAKER President Roosevelt is a contributor of an article ar-ticle in the October Scribner's on ''Small Country Xeighbors," which is interesting reading, and disproves dis-proves the assertion of other nature fakers that the president does not 'observe nature save only as a hunter. With all the regard we have for the president, pres-ident, a regard we have frequently expressed for the personal excellencies of the man, though not at all times agreeing with his policies, we must, even with the knowledge that we may be condemned to that class of undesirable citizens which have been dubbed "nature fakers" by no less a personage than the president himself, question the statement made by Mr. Roosevelt that chipmunks hibernate. If we understand what hibernation is, the animal which enjoys this mode of life at the beginning of winter retires to its nest and goes into a state of torpor or lethargy from which it does not rouse to par take of food or drink. If the chipmunk does that, it hibernates; if it does not, it does not hibernate. All the observation we have made of the ground squirrel is that casual acquaintance which we made when as a boy we wandered over the hills and through the woods of our native state (Ohio) absorbing ab-sorbing what knowledge of nature was in evidence there. Recollection is vivid of driving the striped anjmals from beneath the nut trees where they were engaged in eating or gathering their winter store. They scampered away, their beautiful brown fur, glistening in the autumnal sun. And the dog frequently fre-quently disclosed the hiding place of a store of nuts which the chipmunk had gathered for winter's use or for that period following its hibernation in the spring when nuts would not be available. Then, too, seeing the animals running along the rails of the fences lining the road and separating it from the woods at seasons when snow covered the earth and the coasting season was at its height does not indicate hibernation. The chipmunks were out sunning themselves or rustling for grub, we know not which, but if pursued they were agile enough to dispel any notion that they were in a lethargic state. From the evidence of boyish observation we are impelled to the belief that hibernation is not a part of the life of the ground squirrel, the president presi-dent to the contrary notwithstanding. In the first place, it lays up a store of food; in the second place, it comes out on bright days of winter. All tors. We are inclined to the opinion that the hackee has not changed his mode of life, and that proof thereof may be had in any portion of the country where the animal is indigenous. With all duo respect for the presidential knowledge of bear and bobcats and wolves and coyotes and all the other beasts upon which his trusty gun has been trained, in the matter of the chipmunk, until better authority to the contrary is produced, we must confer con-fer upon him the doubtful title of X. F. |