5 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



So long as it is awake this animal is rarely idle. It is always 

 busy carrying hay, straw, etc., into its nest. It fills its mouth 

 with these things, and the amount it can stow away is incredible 

 to one who has not seen it. What it can not get into its mouth it 

 takes between its paws, and carries that too. It never soils itself 

 with its urine or fseces, but either deposits them in the proper 

 place in the burrow, or throws them away from its body. Jo- 

 hannes Stumpff says, in his chronicle, that the marmot always 

 stinks in the summer before it gets fat. 



Op its Cleverness and Sweet Nature. Occasionally they 

 frolic in the sunshine before their holes like kittens or puppies, 

 rolling themselves in balls and frisking and chattering to each 

 other. When reared in the house they carry on their sports be- 

 fore the eye of man. When angry they bite viciously, but when 

 they are once used to captivity they make man their playmate, 

 and sometimes catch his lice like a monkey. Few animals be- 

 come more familiar than this one. It sometimes bites the dog, 

 which is too well trained to defend itself. 



When the marmots gather in the meadows to play, one stands 

 near the mouth of the hole on the watch for men or other ene- 



FlG. 11. 



mies, and gives warning of the approach of danger by a bark or a 

 shrill, high-pitched whistle. As soon as the others hear this cry 

 they run to the hole, tumbling over each other in their hurry, the 

 sentinel standing guard till all are in. 



In unfavorable weather they remain in their holes ; with their 

 high-pitched voices they give notice of changes in the weather as* 

 well as of the approach of danger. 



