PARRY'S MARMOT-SQUIRREL. 79 



rings or bars of black at the tips. The hairs on the under surface of the 

 tail are chiefly of a rusty or brownish-red colour ; moustaches black. 



DIMENSIONS. 



From nose to root of tail 

 Tail (vertebrae) 

 Tail, to end of hair 

 From heel to end of cla^v 

 From ear to point of nose 

 Height of ear 



iches. 



Lizies. 



11 



6 



4 



6 



6 







2 



3 



2 











24 



The only account we have of this handsome spermophile is that given 

 by its talented discoverer, who says of it, — 



" It is found generally in stony districts, but seems to delight chiefly in 

 sandy hillocks amongst rocks, where burrows, inhabited by different in- 

 dividuals, may be often observed crowded together. One of the society 

 is generally observed sitting erect on the summit of the hillocks, whilst 

 the others are feeding in the neighbourhood. Upon the approach of dan- 

 ger, he gives the alarm, and they instantly betake themselves to their 

 holes, remaining chattering, however, at the entrance until the advance 

 of the enemy obliges them to retire to the bottom. When their retreat 

 is cut off, they become much terrified, and seeking shelter in the first cre- 

 vice that offers, they not unfrequently succeed only in hiding the head 

 and fore-part of the body, whilst the projecting tail is, as usual with them 

 when under the influence of terror, spread out flat on the rock. Their 

 cry in this season of distress, strongly resembles the loud alarm of the 

 Hudson's Bay squirrel, and is not very unlike the sound of a watchman's 

 rattle. The Esquimaux name of this animal, Seek-Seek, is an attempt to 

 express this sound. According to Hearne, they are easily tamed, and 

 are very cleanly and playful in a domestic state. They never come 

 abroad during the winter. Their food appears to be entirely vegetable ; 

 their pouches being generally observed to be filled, according to the 

 season, with tender shoots of herbaceous plants, berries of the Alpine 

 arbutus, and of other trailing shrubs, or the seeds of bents, grasses, and 

 leguminous plants. They produce about seven young at a time." 



Captain Ross mentions that some of the dresses of the Esquimaux, at 

 Repulse Bay, were made of the skins of this species ; these people also 

 informed him that it was very abundant in that inhospitable region. 



