THE WOODCHUCK 



79 



prairie-" dog, " and it is seldom that anyone 

 speaks well of him. His favorite home is a 

 burrow in a gravelly hillside in a "swamp lot," 

 •or woods pasture, and while he likes to come out 

 and bask in the warm sunshine, he never ventures 

 far from his front door. 



In the autumn, instead of storing up vegeta- 

 bles for winter, he takes on a quantity of fat, 

 under his skin. Early in November he blithely 

 goes to sleep in his burrow, and does not waken 



York to Georgia, and westward to Kansas and 

 South Dakota. 



A much larger species called the Gray Mar- 

 mot, 1 or Whistler (22 + 7 inches), is an im- 

 portant northwestern form, strongly marked by 

 its light, grizzly-gray color, with certain dark 

 markings. It is found from the Columbia River 

 northward to about 63° North Latitude and 

 eastward to Hudson Bay. It derives one of its 

 names from the fact that its alarm cry consists of 



WOODCHUCK. 



until February 2, — "Ground-Hog day." Then, 

 — so runs the popular legend, — he emerges, and 

 looks about him. If he sees his shadow, he again 

 retires to his burrow, and sleeps six weeks longer, 

 — which betokens a cold, wintry spring. 



The eastern Woodchuck is a typical marmot, 

 short-legged, heavy-bodied, flat-headed, and 

 brownish gray in color. The length of its head 

 and body is 14 inches, and of its tail 5 inches. It 

 inhabits the eastern United States from New 



a shrill whistle, which is repeated by the various 

 members of the colony threatened with danger. 

 The Yellow-Bellied Marmot, 2 easily distin- 

 guished by the bright red hair on its under parts, 

 is a southern species, found in California, Arizona, 

 New Mexico and Texas. High up, on the Olym- 

 pic Mountains of western Washington, is found 

 still another species of marmot, as large as the 



1 Mar-mo'ta pru-in-o'sus. 



2 Mar-mo'ta fiav'i-ven-ter. 



Laboratory of Ornithology 

 259 Sapsucker Woods Road 

 Cornell University 

 tlhaca, New York 14850 



