4 2 4 ALPINE EUROPE 



rounded by banks and precipices, but always choose dry places on the sunny side 

 of the mountain. Their summer dwelling is a passage of from one to four yards 

 in length, so narrow as not to allow the entrance of a hand, leading into a wider 

 chamber. The passage is generally situated in the open sward, but often between 

 stones and rocks with an outlet on the outer side; it is sometimes divided into two 

 arms, one leading to the dwelling, the other used as a refuse-hole. Sometimes 

 the summer dwelling is also used in winter, when the chamber is enlarged, but 

 should the marmot have a winter dwelling as well, it descends from a height of 

 8500 feet or so, to a lower altitude of from 7500 or 6500 feet, often coming down 

 within the limit of tree-growth. The principal passage in the winter burrow 

 seldom measures less than one or two yards, but is often from eight to ten yards. 

 It is made in an upward direction, opening into an oblong or round chamber of 

 about a couple of yards in diameter, with a depth of a yard or more under the 

 grass. In August this is lined with dry grass and herbs. Before the family, 

 numbering from five to fifteen, retire to hibernate, the neighbourhood of the bin-row 

 is betrayed by the wisps of dry grass lying about in front. Marmots generally 

 move to winter-quarters in the middle of October, especially if the season be cold, 

 when they stop up the entrance to the burrow with grass, earth, and stones to the 

 depth of a few feet; a dwelling used only for the summer never contains grass. 

 In late autumn the burrows are easily recognisable by the absence of snow above 

 them, the rest of the ground being covered with a thin layer of white. The winter 

 burrow has generally a side avenue like the summer burrow, probably owing to 

 the fact that the animals have changed the direction of the passage. In burrowing 

 the earth is only partly thrown out, most of it remaining in the hole, where it is 

 firml}' trampled down ; but the old grass is all thrown out, often in such quantities 

 that it is more than a man can carry away at a time. In the winter burrows, 

 from ten to fifteen marmots are often found lying in a death-like torpor, each one 

 huddled up with its nose touching the tail, and the soles of the hind-feet at the side 

 of the head. During this period digestion ceases for six or eight months, the stomach 

 being empty and the limbs stiff; their bodies are cold and insensible to wounds, 

 owing to the sluggish circulation, and breathing is scarcely perceptible, the result 

 being that they do not become thin during the period of hibernation, but merely 

 lose their fat a short time after awakening, which takes place at the end of May 

 or April, when their tracks may be seen all over the snow, as the hungry animals 

 run about to find gi - ass on uncovered spots. Soon after hibernation they pair, the 

 young appearing in June, to the number of from one to six. At first they are 

 ashy blue in colour, but change later to yellowish brown. The young, which 

 remain with their parents until the following summer, are never seen outside the 

 hole before they reach a certain size, and are suckled by the mother, who sits 

 on her hind-legs like a dog, with her fore-paws outspread. Those families which 

 do not possess a summer dwelling make long excursions to flowery pastures, where 

 thej r do not tolerate intruders, driving them away by drumming them with the 

 fore-paws on the head and back. Marmots are captured by digging them out of 

 their burrows, a practice now prohibited in many places ; they are also caught in 

 traps, when as a rule only the older animals are taken ; and they are hunted by 

 dogs specially trained for the purpose. Marmots are found exclusively on the 



