Chipmunk

a small striped American squirrel, half way between the true, or tree squirrel, and the gopher, or ground squirrel. Its Latin name signifies a steward, and is expressive of its characteristic habit of storing away hoards of nuts, grains, and seeds, for use in time of scarcity. The chipmunk frisks in and out about stone walls, log piles, and stumps. It excavates long burrows beneath the frost line. Convenient chambers, or enlargements, are arranged at intervals in which it stores its supplies. A living room is furnished with a comfortable bed of leaves. Like its relatives, it has capacious cheek pouches in which it carries nuts, seeds, buds, and grain to its storerooms. The storage instinct seems to have no limit. If a grainfield, or bin of grain, or a corn crib be at hand, it is said that a pair of chipmunks will secrete a bushel of food, carrying, in fact, until the season drives them under ground to sleep until spring comes. His store of food is intended, it would seem, for springtime scarcity. The body of the Eastern species is about six inches long, with a slender tail nearly as long as the body. Its back carries five black stripes and two white ones. The Rocky Mountain species has the same number of dark stripes and four white ones.