the
good ones; and all through late summer they are at work gathering them
for winter use in place of the pine-nuts.

[Illustration]

Now if the provident Squirrel stored these up as he does the pinyons, in
holes or underground, they would surely go to mush in a short time and
be lost. He makes no such mistake. He stores them in the forked branches
of trees, where they dry out and remain good until needed; and wisely
puts them high enough up to be out of reach of the Deer and low enough
to avoid being dislodged by the wind.

As you ramble through the Squirrel-frequented woods, you will often come
across a log or stump which is littered over with the scales fresh cut
from a pine cone; sometimes there is a pile of a bushel or more by the
place; you have stumbled on a Squirrel's workshop. Here is where he does
his husking, and the "clear corn" produced is stored away in some
underground granary till It is needed.

The Pine Squirrel loves to nest in a hollow tree, but also builds an
outside nest which at a distance looks like a mass of rubbish. This, on
investigation, turns out to be a convenient warm chamber some six inches
wide and two or three high. It is covered with a waterproof roof of bark
thatch, and entered by a door artfully concealed with layers and fringes
of bark that hide it alike from blood-thirsty foes and piercing winter
blasts.

[Illustration]

CHIPMUNKS AND GROUND-SQUIRRELS

The Red-squirrel is safe and happy only when in the tall trees, but his
kinsmen have sought out any and every different environment. One
enormous group of his great grandfather's second cousins have abandoned
tree life altogether. They have settled down like the Dakota farmers, to
be happy on the prairie, where, never having need to get over anything
higher than their own front doorstep, they have lost the last vestige of
power to climb. These are the Ground-squirrels, that in a variety of
forms are a pest in gardens and on farms in most of the country west of
the Mississippi.

Standing between these and the true Squirrels are the elegant Chipmunks,
the prettiest and most popular of all the family. They frequent the
borderland between woods and prairie; they climb, if anything is to be
gained by it, but they know, like the Ground-squirrels, that Mother
Earth is a safer retreat in time of danger than the tallest tree that
ever grew.

THE GROUND-SQUIRREL THAT PLAYS PICKET-PIN

Conspicuous in its teeming numbers in the