The Wit of the Wild 



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the same size, having the same blunt nose, squat, 

 rotund form, and small, creeping feet. Their 

 ears are round, set close to the head and rimmed 

 with white, and they have almost no tails at all. 

 The varied colors of guinea-pigs are due to their 

 long domestication, and the pikas do not re- 

 semble them in that respect, but are grayish 

 above and yellowish-white on the lower parts. 

 Most of the mountain animals may go down 

 into the protection of the forests when autumnal 

 storms begin to blanket the peaks with snow, but 

 some cannot get away. The siffleur, or moun- 

 tain woodchuck, no longer sounds the wild, clear 

 whistling that seems the voice of the mountain 

 spirit, so eerie and disembodied is it, but, heavy 

 with fatness, lounges into his snug burrow and 

 goes to sleep. The few squirrels, mice and 

 shrews, that dwell along the upper borders of 

 the timber, seek warm retreats prepared in ad- 

 vance ; the bears no longer climb the rocks, and 

 even the white goat, whose favorite resting- 

 place has been the middle of a glacial snow-field, 

 now seeks some sheltered ravine-head for a win- 

 ter hospice. Very few four-footed animals 

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