LAYING IN SUPPLIES 



It occasionally happens that marmots have only one home 

 all the year round in that case it is made on the plan of 

 the winter quarters, and is more spacious than a dwelling 

 which is intended for occupation in the summer-time only. 

 As a rule, however, they like to spend the warm months on 

 grassy slopes high up amongst the mountains, about ten 

 thousand feet above the sea partly, perhaps, because at 

 such a height they are comparatively safe from meeting with 

 dangerous neighbours. But the coming of cold weather 

 drives them down to the pasture lands, which have by that 

 time been deserted by the shepherds, and there they begin 

 to dig out winter burrows which are spacious enough in some 

 cases to accommodate a family of fifteen individuals. 



The middle of October is the time when they shut them- 

 selves in for the winter, and to prepare for this event they 

 bring in a quantity of dry grass, which forms a soft carpet 

 for the burrow and is used, together with earth and stones, 

 for blocking up the entrances. This shutting up of the 

 home is effected at a distance of one or two feet from the 

 outer opening, where, if the animals are at home for 

 the winter, you find a solidly built door. Just before that 

 point the tunnel divides, forming a branch road; it is 

 probable that this is made after the door has been con- 

 structed, for the purpose of keeping the burrow free from 

 refuse and waste materials. A similar branch passage which 

 is occasionally found in the summer burrow must, however, 

 have some other use : perhaps it is meant as a means of 

 escape when the animal is pursued, or it may have been 

 intended originally for the main road, and abandoned on 

 account of a stone or some other obstacle. 



It is seldom that the main road is less than ten feet long, 

 and occasionally it extends three times that distance from 

 the entrance. As it approaches the end it rises a little before 

 D 53 



