20 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 



In this zone he finds ample dwelling places 

 under the surface between the rocks of slides 

 and moraines. 



Conies appear to live in rock-walled, rock- 

 floored dens. I have not seen a cony den in 

 earth matter. With few exceptions all dens 

 seen were among the boulders of moraines or 

 the jumbled rocks of slides. Both these rock 

 masses are comparatively free of earthy mat- 

 ter. Dens are, for the most part, ready-made. 

 About all the cony has to do is to find the den 

 and take possession. 



In the remains of a caved moraine I saw parts 

 of a number of cony dens exposed. The dens 

 simply were a series of irregularly connected 

 spaces between the boulders and rock chunks 

 of the moraine. Each cony appears to have 

 a number of spaces for sleeping, hay-stacking, 

 and possibly for exercise. One cony had a 

 series of connected rooms, enough almost for 

 a cliff-dweller city. One of these rooms was 

 filled with hay, and in three others were thin 

 nests of hay. 



These dens are not free from danger. Occa- 

 sionally an under-cutting stream causes a mo- 

 rainal deposit to collapse. Snowslides may cover 

 a moraine deeply with a deposit of snow and 

 this in melting sends down streams of water; 

 the roof over cony rooms leaks badly; he vacates. 



