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Show IKI IHR ar tu"l ' In Vlnlaiv IK, It on aska a huudred school clill- WgM' ' dren-und grown people, aa well KH9k for that matter bow tijulrrels tub- 1B i-1 ' winter, ulne out ot ten will ? reply thai they eat the nuts they gulh- -..- r In the summer and fail. This la B partly, but not wholly true. Their food BJ la widely varied In the course of BB yar ipeA tally In the spring uudauni- IV mar. Indian torn In the aillk aulteri 1' Ei more from squirrels than from rai coons or muskrats, which are brover blally so fon of It. In places on the western frontier an extetielve system of watching ha had to be maintained al times against this pt One dainty In late anmrae- Is the mushroom, of several varletle of which they re fond, and this reminds me of a bit of unexpected sagarlty In one of the western west-ern chipmunks la'ely spoken of In my hearing by the artist and author. Urn-eat Urn-eat Ueton Thompson 11 appeara that this chipmunk depends for Its ordinary ordin-ary fall and winter fare upon tho seods of llm plnon pine which It preserves by storage In Its hole In decayed stumps r underground It happened lately, however, that In a certain area of the northwest the plnon ernp was a romplel failure and the ground aqulr-reta aqulr-reta wero compelled to find something e-lte for their subsistence and winter stores. In this extremity they turned to the mushrooms everywhere abundant, abund-ant, and were busy during nil the late autumn In gathering them They were too wise, however to atore them un-derground.where un-derground.where they would noun have rolled, but Instead deposited them In notches and crotchet; of the lower branches of the forest tree where they dried In the open air and to kept In good condition to lie eaten Their hrlvrllng up and the shaking ot the branches) by the winds rauteil many to fall.and these the squirrels Industriously Industrious-ly picked up and tried to fatten more securely to the brunches This method meth-od of providing themselves with winter food Implied the necessity of their coming forth from their underground retreati. no matter how cold and nowy tho weather, whenever they wanted something to ent. Instead of having their larder Indoors, as Is usual with them, and It would bo Interesting to know whether they actually did so or whether they failed to profit, after all, by their eeemlngly sagacious prudence. |
