ords, by some ventriloquial tricks, he appears to
accompany himself, as if his voice split up, a part forming a low
guttural sound, and a part a shrill nasal sound.

II

THE CHIPMUNK

The first chipmunk in March is as sure a token of the spring as the
first bluebird or the first robin, and is quite as welcome. Some genial
influence has found him out there in his burrow, deep under the ground,
and waked him up, and enticed him forth into the light of day. The red
squirrel has been more or less active all winter; his track has dotted
the surface of every new-fallen snow throughout the season. But the
chipmunk retired from view early in December, and has passed the
rigorous months in his nest, beside his hoard of nuts, some feet
underground, and hence, when he emerges in March, and is seen upon his
little journeys along the fences, or perched upon a log or rock near his
hole in the woods, it is another sign that spring is at hand. His store
of nuts may or may not be all consumed; it is certain that he is no
sluggard, to sleep away these first bright warm days.

Before the first crocus is out of the ground, you may look for the first
chipmunk. When I hear the little downy woodpecker begin his spring
drumming, then I know the chipmunk is due. He cannot sleep after that
challenge of the woodpecker reaches his ear.

Apparently the first thing he does on coming forth, as soon as he is
sure of himself, is to go courting. So far as I have observed, the
love-making of the chipmunk occurs in March. A single female will
attract all the males in the vicinity. One early March day I was at work
for several hours near a stone fence, where a female had apparently
taken up her quarters. What a train of suitors she had that day! how
they hurried up and down, often giving each other a spiteful slap or
bite as they passed. The young are born in May, four or five at a birth.

The chipmunk is quite a solitary creature; I have never known more than
one to occupy the same den. Apparently no two can agree to live
together. What a clean, pert, dapper, nervous little fellow he is! How
fast his heart beats, as he stands up on the wall by the roadside, and,
with hands spread out upon his breast, regards you intently! A movement
of your arm, and he darts into the wall with a saucy _chip-r-r_, which
has the effect of slamming the door behind him.

On some still day in autumn, one of the nutty days, the woods will
often be pervaded by an