20 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF MAMMALIA. 



at the entrance until the advance of the enemy obliges 

 them to retire to the bottom. When their retreat is cut 

 off, they become much terrified, and, seeking shelter in 

 the first crevice, they not unfrequently succeed only in 

 hiding the head and fore part of the body, whilst the 

 projecting tail is, as is usual with them under the influ- 

 ence of terror, spread out flat on the rock. Their cry, 

 in this season of distress, strongly resembles the loud 

 alarm of the Hudson's Bay squirrel, and is not very un- 

 like the sound of a watchman's rattle. The Esquimaux 

 name is an attempt to express this sound. Heme states 

 that they are easily tamed, and very cleanly and playful 

 when domesticated. They never come abroad during 

 the winter. Their food appears to be entirely vegeta- 

 ble; their pouches being generally filled, according to 

 the season, with tender shoots of herbaceous plants, 

 berries of the alpine arbutus, and of other trailing shrubs, 

 or the seeds of grasses and leguminous plants. They 

 produce about seven young at a time. 



The true marmots {Arctomys) are thicker, more ro- 

 bust, and less elegant in figure than the Spermophiles ; 

 the head is broad and flat, and the muzzle obtuse ; the 

 limbs are short, and there are no cheek-pouches. 



The Alpine Marmot {Arctomys marmotd). 



This well-known species is common in the high moun- 

 tain districts of Europe, where it takes up its abode just 

 below the line of perpetual snow, excavating a deep 

 burrow, to which it has recourse on every appearance of 

 an enemy. In this, which it lines with dried grass, 

 moss, &c., it hybernates during the severity of the season. 

 The burrows of the marmot are always constructed in 

 dry situations, and mostly on declivities exposed to the 

 south or south-east. They are of considerable extent, 

 and are worked out and tenanted by families consisting 

 of from five to fifteen individuals. They begin by a 

 passage which runs for about six feet, and is just capable 

 of admitting the animal's body. From the farther end 



