450 1"HE ALPINE MARMOT. 



it is saidj lies down on his back, allows himself to be 

 loaded with hay, and extends his limbs ; and others 

 irail him, thus loaded, by the tail, taking care not 

 to overset him. The task of thus serving as a vehicle, 

 is divided alternately among the number. " I have 

 often (says M. Beauplau) seen them practise this, 

 and have had the curiosity to watch them at it for 

 whole days together." The repeated frictions aris- 

 ing from sustaining a passive part in the operation, are 

 assigned as the reason why the hair is generally 

 rubbed off from their backs. But it is more pro- 

 bable that this- effect is produced by their frequent 

 digging of the earthy v;hich alone is sufficient to 

 peel off the hair. However this may be, it is cer- 

 tain that they dwell together, and work in common in 

 their habitations, where they pass three-fourths of 

 their lives. Thither they retire during rain, or on 

 the approach of danger ; and never go out but in 

 line weather, and even then to no great distance. 



One of them stands sentinel upon a rock, while 

 the others gambol upon the grass, or are employed 

 in cutting it in order to make hay. If tiie sentinel 

 perceives a Man, an Eagle, a Dog, or other dan- 

 gerous animal, he instantly alarnjs his companions 

 by a loud whistle, and is himself the last that enters 

 the hole *"'. 



As they continue torpid during the winter ; and 

 as if foreseeing, that they would then have no oc- 



* Beaujilau's dciicription of Ukraine. — Tliis writer seems either to 

 have mistaken t}ie Marmot for the next following species, or to have 

 confounded the two. The animals he describes, he calls Bobaqu«s. 



