Chipmunk

Chipmunk, the North American name of any species of Tamias, a genus connecting the True Squirrels with the Marmots. They are pretty little animals, clothed in light fur with darker stripes, and the Common Chipmunk (T. striatus) has also stripes of white. These animals have large cheek-pouches and burrow in the earth, whence they are known as ground squirrels. In these burrows they lay up stores of nuts and grain as a provision for the intervals of their imperfect hibernation. The single Old-World species T. asiaticus is found in North-eastern Europe and the north of Asia.