Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 7.djvu/451

Rh had hoped to find several passages leading from the nest, and two or more "extra" nests, or magazines for storing away food, but no trace of them was to be found.

On the 23d of June, six young chipmunks made their appearance about the stone-wall in the yard, and to these, with their parents, we will now confine our attention. It puzzles us now when we think of it, to imagine when this company of eight chipmunks took any rest. Very frequently during the summer we were astir at sunrise, but the chipmunks were already on the go, and throughout July they appeared to do little but play; which sporting, by-the-way, is very animated. They seem to be playing at what children know as "tag," i. e., they chase each other to and fro, and try not simply to touch, we should judge, but to bite each other's tail. The way in which they scamper along the tapering points of a paling fence is simply astonishing; but however mad may be their galloping, let a hawk come near, and in a moment every one is motionless. If on a fence, they simply squat wherever they may be at the time, and trust to remaining unnoticed. If on the ground, and not too far from their burrows, which is not often the case, they will dart to their nests with an incredible celerity, going, we believe, the whole length of their passage-way to the nest, turning about, and retracing their steps to the entrance, from which they will peer out, and, when the danger is over, reappear and recommence their sports. These little animals



play merely for play's sake, and have no more important object in view than amusement. Indeed, so far as we have studied animal life, this indulgence in play, just as children play, and for the same reasons, is common to all animals. We have often seen most animated movements on the part of fishes that could be referred only to play.

That some work was accomplished during July by our eight