RODENTIA. 121 
but their grinders, like those of the squirrel, amount to five on each side 
above, and four below, all bristled with points; accordingly, some species 
are inclined to eat flesh, and feed upon insects, as well as grass. There 
are four toes and a tubercle in place of a thumb to the fore feet, and five 
toes to the hind ones. In other respects these animals are nearly the 
direct reverse of the squirrels, being heavy, having short legs, a middle- 
sized or short hairy tail, and a large flat head, passing the winter in a 
state of torpor, and shut up in deep holes, the entrance of which they close 
with a heap of grass. They live in societies, and are easily tamed. Two 
species are known in the eastern continent. 
Arct. alpinus; Mus. alpinus, L.; Buff. VIII. xxviii. (The Al- 
pine Marmot). Large as a hare; tail short; fur yellowish-grey, 
with ash-coloured tints about the head. It lives in high mountains, 
immediately below the region of perpetual snow. 
Arc. bobac; M. bobac, L.; Pall. Glir. V; Schreb. CCIX. (The 
Bobac). Size of the preceding; of a yellowish-grey, tinted with 
red about the head. Inhabits low mountains and hills, from Poland 
to Kamschatka, and frequently digs its burrow in the hardest soil.* 
America also produces some species. 
Arct. monax, Buff. Supp. III. xxviii. (‘The Maryland Marmot). 
Grey; tail blackish, as well as the top of the head. 
Arct. empetra, Pall.; Schreb. CX. Less than the preceding; 
grey; red beneath. 
Srrermopuitus, Fred. Cuv. 
We apply this name to those Marmots that have cheek pouches. The 
superior lightness of their structure has caused them to be called Ground 
Squirrels. Eastern Europe produces one species. 
M. citillus, L.; Buff. Supp. III. xxxi. (The Souslik or Zizel). 
A pretty little animal, of a greyish brown, watered or mottled with 
white, the spots very small, which is found from Bohemia to Siberia. 
It has a peculiar fondness for flesh, and does not spare even its own 
species. 
North America has several species of them, one of which is re- 
markable by the thirteen fawn-coloured stripes which extend along 
the back on a blackish ground. It is the T'hirteen-striped Souslik, 
Arct. 13-lineatus, Harl.; or Sciwrus 13-lineatus, Mitchell; or Aret. 
Hoodii, Sabine, Lin. Trans. XIII. pl. xxix}. 
There is one of the Rodentia which it appears we must approximate to 
the Marmots, that is remarkable for living in large troops in immense 
burrows, which have even been styled villages. It is called the Prairie 
Dog, or Barking Squirrel, the latter appellation arising from its voice, 
* Russian travellers in Bucharia mention some other Marmots, Arct. fulvus, Arct. 
lepto-dactylus, Arct. musogaricus, which are not yet perhaps sufficiently distinguished 
from the Boubak or from the Souslik. 
+ Add Arct. Parrii, Richards. App. Parry’s Voy.—Several of the Marmots an- 
nounced in the travels of Lewis and Clarke, Parry, Franklin, &e. Arct. Pranklinii, 
Richardsonii, pruinosa, seem to belong to this subgenus. See Sabine, Lin. Trans. 
XIII, pl. xxvii, xxvii, &e. 
