586 EXPEDITION TO CASHMEEE AND LITTLE TIBET. 



England. The slope at the month is tidy and clean, and filth or drop- 

 pings are rarely seen near it. Judging Irom the number of burrows 

 on one spot, and the individuals seen about them, a community varies 

 from twenty to fifty members, young and old. 



The Tibetian Marmot is a diurnal animal ; from stmrise to sunset 

 young and old may be seen about the warren, gnawing plants or bask- 

 ing in the sun. During the day it never appears to retreat to its 

 burrow, except on the approach of a suspicious object. It is rarely 

 seen more than a few yards off from the warren, and if suddenly come 

 upon at a greater distance it is easily outrun and caught by the hand. 

 But this seldom happens. Although so abundant where its station is, 

 a specimen is not easily got. On the aj^proach of man they retreat to 

 the mouth of the burrow, and after receiving a ball or a charge of shot, 

 if a spark of life remains, they Avriggle into their den and slide down 

 out of reach. The cry is peculiarly clear, loud, and shrill, and it some- 

 Avhat resembles the sound of ' cheeoo ' raised to an octave. It has also 

 something ventriloquial about it. When the eye does not guide the 

 ear to where it is uttered, one looks a few yards ahead, expecting the 

 animal to be close under his feet, while the little trumpeter is soon 

 detected seated perhaps a hundred yards off. On uttering the cry the 

 Drin stretches otit its neck, and bends the head down like a cock at the 

 finishing note of his crow, and the movement is such as to convey the 

 idea that the animal is about to take to flight. 



The Drin exists in vast numbers in the elevated tracts of Tibet ; it 

 has no enemy in man, nor any predaceous foe to control its prolific 

 prodiiction. The Tibetians do not eat its flesh, nor do they hunt it 

 for its fur, although in other cotmtries the latter would be an article of 

 commerce. Its natural enemies, such as the eagle and the Mustelidce, 

 are nowhere seen. The latter could not exist the whole year in the 

 region of the Drin, and were they to invade it in the summer months 

 they would first have to pass through an intermediate lower belt, 

 where they would find nothing to feed upon ; and this circumstance 

 is perhaps the security of the Marmot. Were the iliistelidce to reach 

 so high, their production, from the vast abundance of food, would soon 

 be so great that numerous traces of them would be seen about the 

 ■ haunis of the Drin, and the latter would soon be suppressed in number. 

 But nothing of either sort is observed. The only controlling agency 

 upon the excessive production of the Marmot is probably the ava- 

 lanche, or an unusually he:ivy fall of snow during the winter, either of 

 which might extend the period of hybernation to a whole community 

 longer than the 'powers of life could sustain. 



