194 SOCIABLE ANIMALS. 



In habits marmots are essentially sociable 

 animals, inasmuch as they live in little colonies ; 

 but, unlike some of the prairie marmots, these 

 rock-whistlers, when married, have a house of 

 their own ; and if blessed with a family a blessing 

 seldom denied them they kick out the youthful 

 pledges of affection as soon as they can nibble up 

 a living for themselves. The burrow, which is 

 quite two feet in diameter, is dug invariably in a 

 slanting direction, generally at the base of a rock, 

 standing up like a pedestal, on which they love 

 to sit and whistle. Wide trails, bare-like roads, 

 lead in all directions from their holes to the 

 feeding and drinking-places ; their hours of repast, 

 sensibly chosen, are early in the morning, when 

 the grass and herbage is wet with dew. 



For only a few months, during summer, is this 

 quaint little miner permitted to revel in the 

 luxury of light; for seven dreary months out 

 of the twelve does he sleep out his drowsy 

 existence. What a wise and wonderful provi- 

 sion, to secure from utter extinction animals 

 compelled to live in these icy regions, is hyberna- 

 tion! Growing wondrously fat during the sum- 

 mer, they retire, when the nipping cold and deep 

 snow comes, into burrows lined with soft warm 

 bedding ; there become semi-torpid, and literally a 



