THE MARMOT, 605 
to moist soil. It does not seem to be fond of elevated situations, but generally takes up 
its residence on the sides of valleys, where the teniperature is not so bleak as on the 
mountain-top. 
Like many other burrowing animals, it lays up a store of provisions for the winter, 
and generally chooses well-dried hay for that purpose. So hard does the animal labour at 
amassing this treasure, that in a single burrow there is generally found as much hay as 
will suffice a horse for a night. It is slightly variable in colour, some specimens being 
more brown than others. 
THE common MARMOT is about the size of an ordinary rabbit, and not very unlike that 
animal in colour. The general tint of the fur is greyish- yellow upon the ee and flanks, 
deepening into black-grey on the top of the head, and into black on the extremity of the 
tail. 
It is very common in all the mountainous districts of Northern Europe, where it 
associates in small societies. The Marmot is an expert excavator, and digs very large 
and rather complicated burrows, always appearing to reserve one chamber as a storehouse 
MARMOT.—A’retomys Marmotta. 
for the heap of dried grasses and other similar substances which it amasses for the purpose 
of sustaining life during the winter. The chamber in which the animal lives and sleeps 
is considerably larger than the storehouse, measuring, in some cases, as much as seven 
feet in diameter. The tunnel which leads to these chambers is only just large enough to 
admit the body of the animal, and is about six feet in length. 
To these burrows the Marmot retires about the middle of September, and after closing 
the entrance with grass and earth, enters into the lethargic hibernating state, and does not 
emerge until the beginning of April. Like other hibernating animals, they are very fat 
just before they take up their winter- -quarters, and as their fur is then in the best condition, 
they are eagerly sought after by the human inhabitants of the same country. The burrow 
of the Marmot is alw ays dug in dry soil, and is seldom known to be at all above, or very 
much below, the line of perpetual snow. In these burrows the young Marmots are born, 
about three or four in average number. The burrow seems also a stronghold into which 
the Marmot can retire on the least alarm. It is so w ary an animal that it always plants 
one of its number to act as a sentinel, and on the first symptom of danger, he gives the 
alarm cry, which is a signal for every Marmot to seek the recesses of its subterranean hone, 
