iMO 



M A II M O T. 



later and more accurate French naturalists. Buffon's 

 Canada mar mot is the Carolina one last mentioned, 

 which, instead of being found in Canada, does not 

 reach the northern, or even beyond the central part 

 of the United States. This is of a blackish brown, 

 mottled with white in some places. The top of the 

 head is a uniform brown, passing 1 into reddish brown 

 on the nape. The cheeks and chin are whitish grey ; 

 the breast and paws bright red ; and the tail, which is 

 short but covered with abundance of hair, is black. 

 It inhabits very cold countries, being found in great 

 numbers in the environs of Hudson's Bay, where, of 

 course, it passes a considerable portion of the year in 

 a dormant state. Though it is the American species 

 which has been longest known, there have been some 

 mistakes besides that of Buffon, to which we have 

 alluded. The marmots, and the smaller ground mam- 

 malia of North America generally, to whatever order 

 tney belong, form a department of the history of 

 mammalia upon which information is still very much 

 wanted. The country is so very wide, so well 

 adapted for animals of this description, and many 

 parts of it are so difficult to be explored during the 

 summer, in consequence of floods and quagmires, that 

 there may be many animals of this description, espe- 

 cially hybernating ones, of w hich we may be still igno- 

 rant. 



The Missouri Marmot (A. Missouriensu} inhabits 

 the dry plains on the western side of the great central 

 valley of North America, extending southwards 

 toward Louisiana, in many places of which it is exceed- 

 ingly abundant. Its general colour is reddish brown, 

 with a large head flattened on the under part, the 

 eyes very large, with the irides of a dull brown co- 

 lour ; but the ears so short, that they appear as if 

 they had been shortened by art. The cheeks and a 

 portion over the eyes are furnished with long hairs ; and 

 the whiskers of moderate length and of a black colour. 

 All the feet have five toes, furnished with long black 

 claws ; and the feet themselves are covered with very 

 short fur. These animals are so abundant in some 

 parts of the valley, that their burrows extend over a 

 surface several miles in circumference. Their cry, 

 which is loud and peculiar, has procured them the 

 local name of ' prairie dogs'; the last part of which 

 name is, of course, absurd j but they are strictly 

 enough prairie animals, being found only in the dry 

 plains to which this name is given, and never upon 

 the humid savannahs, which would not of course suit 

 their burrowing habits. 



The Short-tailed Marmot (A. brac/iyura') has the so- 

 cial habits of the last mentioned one, and inhabits 

 nearly the same places, only it appears to extend 

 westward as far as the prairies on the banks of the 

 Columbia river, and perhaps as far southward as 

 Upper California and the Texas, if not further. It 

 is generally speaking of a brown colour, mottled with 

 reddish grey on the upper part, with a tail only one 

 seventh part of the whole length. Reddish brown on 

 the upper part, iron grey on the under, and marked 

 with white along the sides intermediate between those 

 colours. 



The Red Marmot (A. rufa) is a species but imper- 

 fectly known, and understood to have its habitat in 

 'the dry bushy- pitting by the banks of the Columbia, 

 and other places further to the west. It is described 

 as having the fur all over of a reddish brown, with 

 the ears very small, and covered with reddish brown 

 1'ur. ' 



Another species, the Harking marmot, (A. tatram) 

 has been described as living in a social state in the 

 same localities which are assigned to the Missouri 

 marmot. Its colours are nearly the same with the 

 latter, and its feet have the same structure, namely, 

 five perfect toes upon each. The probability therefore 

 is, that it is identically the same animal described from 

 | a specimen accidentally a little redder on the back 

 than they are generally seen. This probability 

 amounts almost, if not altogether, to a certainty, when 

 we bear in mind that the sound of the Missouri mar- 

 mot is considered in the places where it inhabits as 

 so much resembling barking, that the animal is called 

 the prairie dog. 



The species of the social marmots of America re- 

 quire to be examined with a good deal of care. Many 

 of them have been founded upon single specimens, 

 some of them obtained from the Indians, and perhaps 

 have been judged of without the requisite degree of 

 attention to their structure. Now social animals require 

 fully more care in this way than solitary ones. Living 1 

 in the society of each other is the intermediate step 

 between living solitary in wild nature and being do- 

 mesticated ; and therefore we might be prepared to 

 expect among these social animals, a little of that 

 breaking down of the uniform colour which is so 

 common among domesticated ones. Besides this, the 

 social ones are generally far more numerous than the 

 solitary ; and we may conclude that the probability 

 of breaking down into differences of colour shall 

 increase with an increase of numbers, though not ne- 

 cessarily at the same rate. We want information 

 indeed respecting many of the animals of the Rocky 

 Mountains ; and it is not impossible that, in a country 

 so extended, and so varied both in its surface and its 

 climate, many may be discovered in future, of which 

 we at present know nothing. It is true that the great 

 Bonassus, which was several years ago exhibited in 

 Britain, as an undescribed marvel from that part of 

 i America, was an unprincipled hoax, for the purpose 

 I of raising money by its exhibition ; but it by no means 

 i follows that respectable naturalists, or respectable tra- 

 ; vellers of any class, could be guilty of anything of 

 this description. 



SPERMOPHILUS. We have already mentioned the 

 leading characters, both of structure and habit, which 

 distinguish this genus of the group from the true 

 marmots, namely, the possession of cheek pouches^ 

 and being solitary, not social. There are, howeveri 

 a few other characters, which are worthy of notice, 

 as pointing out more clearly the proper place of this 

 genus in the order of rodent animals, which is that of 

 a connecting link between that of the true marmots 

 and the ground squirrels. The most remarkable of 

 these are the feet and legs more lengthened, the feet 

 longer, and all free, with a single tubercle at the base 

 i of each, not covered with hair. The most remark- 

 ! able difference, however, is in the bones of the head, 

 | the oval pupils of the eyes, and the perfectly free 

 toes. 



The Siberian Marmot, the Souslik, or Zizel, (S. sitillus,) 



is the typical genus. It is of a yellowish brown 



colour on the upper part, varied, and spotted with 



transverse markings of white, and has the under part 



! entirely white. The cheek pouches are large for the 



; size of the animal. It is by much the most handsome 



! of all the marmot group or family ; and when it was 



considered as a regular member of that group, it wai 



considered -as the variesated marmot. There arej 



