THE TRUE MARMOTS 1261 



sufficient power left to struggle down. Marmots in the Himalayas will generally re- 

 appear after being fired at once, but after a second fright they are seldom seen again 

 on that day. All the species appear to be readily tamed. 



Three well-defined species of marmots inhabit North America, 



me " ca namely, the woodchuck (A. monax), the Rocky-mountain marmot 



(A . flaviventer) , and the hoary marmot (A. pruinosus). Of these the 



last is the largest, and agrees closely with the Alpine species, though the length 



of the head and body is said to reach from twenty-three to twenty-five inches. 



The second does not exceed eighteen and one-half inches in length of head and 



body, but has a much longer tail, of which the length is from nine to ten inches. 



This species ranges from California through the Rocky mountains to about the 



forty-ninth parallel of latitude; it appears to be a strictly Alpine animal, and is to 



some extent gregarious, like the Old-World species. 



The woodchuck is the smallest of the three species, averaging only fourteen 

 and one-half inches in length of head and body, with a tail of nearly half this di- 

 mension. It is generally mixed fulvous, brownish black, and gray above, and yel- 

 lowish or brownish red below; but some specimens are almost wholly black. The 

 range of the woodchuck extends from Manitoba to Carolina, and westward from the 

 Atlantic to Missouri and Minnesota. 



In habits this species appears to differ considerably from the Old-World forms. 

 According to Dr. Hart Merriam, it delights in the open meadows and rocky hill- 

 sides in the cultivated area round the Adirondack mountains, where it feeds chiefly 

 upon grass and clover. Although generally living in burrows of its own excava- 

 tion, the woodchuck will sometimes take up its abode in rocky ledges or in the hol- 

 low roots of trees. During the summer the greater number of these animals live in 

 the open fields; but in the winter it appears that in the Adirondack region at least 

 they retire for the winter to burrows situated close to, or actually within, the bor- 

 ders of woods. In the Adirondacks the woodchucks become very fat in the early 

 autumn, and retire for their winter sleep no matter what be the temperature or 

 the state of the weather about the equinox, from which they do not awake till 

 the middle or latter part of March. Still more remarkable is the circumstance that 

 the animal often retires when the weather is genial and food abundant, while at the 

 time of its reappearance the ground is frequently deep in snow. 



"Woodchucks," writes Dr. Merriam, "are both nocturnal and diurnal, the 

 periods of feeding being determined, in a general way, by the time of the year, the 

 weather, and the proximity of enemies. In summer, throughout the farming 

 districts, they commonly leave their burrows early in the morning, late in the after- 

 noon, and during moonlight nights; but may sometimes be found abroad at all 

 hours. As autumn approaches, and they become more fat and sleepy, they usually 

 appear only in fine weather, and then but for a few hours in the hottest part of the 

 afternoon." Like the Old-World species, the woodchuck when much hunted be- 

 comes exceedingly wary and difficult to approach; but it differs from all the latter in 

 that it will sometimes ascend trees and shrubs making these ascents sometimes 

 for pleasure and at others to avoid foes. Woodchucks live either singly or in pairs; 

 the young, which are born at the end of April or beginning of May in the Adiron- 



