356 



VERTEBRATA. 







MARMOTS. 



Genus MARMOT : Arctomys. — Marmot is the popular name of the best-known European 

 species of this genus, and Arctomys means bear-rat,& rat having a body resembling the bear y which 

 is an excellent description of these animals. Like the rest of the order, they are without canine 

 teeth, and in the sharpness of the incisors of the lower jaw, they bear some resemblance to the 

 great family of rats and mice, though, in other respects, they bear a stronger resemblance to the 

 squirrels ; their external forms, and also their manners, are, however, peculiar. They have five 

 grinders on each side in the upper jaw, and four in the under, the summits of which have sharp 

 tubercles, so that they seem capable of subsisting on insects, and even on the flesh of larger ani- 

 mal.-, as well as on vegetables. Their bodies are thick and clumsy, their legs short and thick, their 

 head flat, their ears short and blunted, and their tail short and apparently incapable of motion. 



At all seasons they are ground animals, and spend the whole of their time, except what is taken 

 up in feeding, in their burrows, which they dig with great ease and rapidity, and to a considerable 

 depth, always sloping downward, so that the dwelling may be beyond the reach of the int. 

 cold of the winter, and yet so contrived as to be in no danger of filling with water during the 

 rains or the melting of the snow. 



Some of them are animals of considerable size, not less than the cat, but differently formed. 

 Though easily taken, as their progressive motion is slow, and it is not very difficult to dig them 

 out of their burrows, they are of little value to mankind as game. In autumn, when they are (at, 

 the) are Bometimes eaten, but they are not very palatable to those who have a choice of food. 



The El BOPBAH <>r Ai.i'i.nk Marmot, A. marmotta — the Mus marmot ta of Linnauis — inhabits, 

 as it- name implies, the Alps, and some of the other lofty mountains of Europe; but it is not 

 found even in the most mountainous parts of the British Islands. It is about sixteen inches long 

 from the nose to the root of the tail; its color is subject to some variation ; but the prevailing 

 hue on the upper pari is dark gray, with the tip of the tail black. The feet are whitish, tin 

 pari surrounding the muzzle whitish-gray, and the under part of the body bright brownish-red 

 It- large head, its squat, clumsy body, and its short thick legs, give it what one would be apt to 

 consider an expression of stupidity; but in the case of no animal is the external appearance mon * 

 at variance with the facts. 



In a state of nature it conducts the making of its burrow with greater neatness, and keeps it in 

 better order than mosl of the burrowing rodentia, and its domestic economy is scarcely inferior te 

 that of the beaver itself. In fact, though the hut of the beaver is a structure reared, and tin ■ 



