fied, wearing all the insignia of a
grain-eater, yet ruthlessly indulging in such a bloody and cannibal
feast.

A FOUR-LEGGED BIRD--THE NORTHERN CHIPMUNK

The early naturalists who first made the acquaintance of the Eastern
Ground-squirrel named it Tamias or "The Steward." Later the Northern
Chipmunk was discovered and it was found to be more of a Chipmunk than
its Eastern cousin. The new one had all the specialties of the old kind,
but in a higher degree. So they named this one _Eutamias_, which means
"good" or "extra good" Chipmunk. And extra good this exquisite little
creature surely is in all that goes to make a charming, graceful, birdy,
pert and vivacious four-foot. In everything but colours it is Eutamias
or Tamias of a more intensified type. Its tail is long in proportion and
carried differently, being commonly held straight up, so that the
general impression one gets is of a huge tail with a tiny striped animal
attached to its lower end.

[Illustration]

Its excessive numbers along the roads in the Park are due to two things:
First, the food, for oats are continually spilled from the freighting
wagons. Second, the protection of piles of pine trees cut and cast aside
in clearing the roadway.

There is one habit of the Eastern Chipmunk that I have not noted in the
mountain species, and that is the habit of song. In the early spring and
late autumn when the days are bright and invigorating, the Eastern
Chipmunk will mount some log, stump or other perch and express his
exuberant joy in a song which is a rapid repetition of a bird-like note
suggested by "Chuck," "Chuck," or "Chock," "Chock." This is kept up two
or three minutes without interruption, and is one of those delightful
woodland songs whose charm comes rather from association than from its
inherent music.

If our Western Chipmunk is as far ahead in matters musical as he is in
form and other habits, I shall expect him to render no less than the
song of a nightingale when he gives himself up to express his wild
exuberance in a chant.

I shall never forget the days I spent with a naturalist friend in an old
mill building in western Manitoba. It was in a pine woods which was
peopled with these little Chipmunks. They had hailed the mill and its
wood piles, and especially the stables, with their squandered oats, as
the very gifts of a beneficient Providence for their use and benefit.
They had concentrated on the mill; they were there in hundreds, almo