3 8 Summer Studies of Birds and Books chap. 



Burbolt, a British species, but restricted to a few of 

 our rivers. What is interesting about him on the 

 Engstlen Alp is that he must pass the greater part 

 of the year under a roof of thick ice with deep snow 

 above it ; and I presume that he buries himself in 

 the mud and lies torpid. 



There is another animal, very plentiful on this 

 alp, which also sleeps under snow all the winter. I 

 have never seen Marmots so close and so well as 

 here in June ; few visitors have been about, and the 

 creatures have almost forgotten to be wary. Early 

 one morning they were scampering all round us as 

 we walked up to the Joch, looking much like long- 

 haired dark-brown Scotch terriers ; in fear, I think, 

 rather than in play, for we smelt foxes strongly, and 

 found their tracks on the snow. The Marmot is a 

 perfectly helpless creature ; every time he comes out 

 of his hole he is in danger, and he knows it. "When 

 Eagles were commoner than they are now he ran 

 risk from these, but foxes and stoats remain to per- 

 secute him. He goes rarely far from home, except 

 perhaps early in the morning, and when he wishes 

 to enjoy the sun, squats down on the grass by the 

 side of his burrow, or on the top of the little natural 

 rise under which it is often excavated. There he 

 makes a form like a hare's, which is often slabbed 

 down quite smooth by his weight and shaggy hair. 

 The instant any danger threatens — a strange sound 



