12 



ISrOETH AMEEICAN FAXJITA, 



[No. 37. 



as we thought on examining them, been frozen to death. The other, the male, was 

 now removed to a cellar, where he remained in a perfectly dormant state until the 

 latter part of February, when he escaped before we were aware of his reanimation. 

 We had handled him only two days previously, and could perceive no symptoms of 

 returning vivacity.^ 



The following account of a yellow-footed marmot {Marmota jiavi- 

 ventris subsp.) found in midwinter in the Silver Mountain tunnel at 

 Opliir, Colo.; probably indicates a common method of hibernation 

 in that species: 



* * [He] had packed in grass for a nest, and taken up his winter quarters. He was 

 rolled up like a ball, with his forepaws over his eyes; we pulled his paws away, and 

 his eyes were closed; all our efforts to awake him were futile; he would yawn like a 

 boy that had been disturbed when sleeping soundly, return his paws to his eyes, and 

 curl himself up in his original position. ^ 



BREEDING. 



The eastern woodchuck usualty produces from 4 to 6 young at a 

 birth. Bachman states, however, that on two occasions he counted 

 7 and on another 8 young in a litter, and H. H. T. Jackson informs 

 me that he once saw a litter of 9. In New York State, according to 

 Merriam, this species brings forth its young the last of April or first 

 of May. In the Southern States they are born somewhat earlier. 



The yellow-footed marmots breed at about the same season as 

 their eastern relatives and produce from 3 to 8 young at a birth. In 

 the Bitterroot Valley, Montana, 5 females collected between April 8 

 and April 16 were pregnant, the number of embryos being in most 

 cases 5 or 6 (in one case 3). Young marmots were out in numbers 

 in that region on May 30. Warren states that an individual of this 

 species collected at Sulphur Springs, Colo., on May 4, contained 8 

 embryos.^ 



The hoary marmots probably breed somewhat later than their 

 smaller relatives, but little information on this point is available. A 

 female specimen of Marmota caligata nivaria, taken May 27, 1895, near 

 St. Marys Lake, Mont., contained 5 embryos. Swarth states that 

 in southern Alaska young individuals of M. c. caligata were seen 

 running about in the middle of June, but on Vancouver Island, dur- 

 ing the first three weeks of July, no young ones [of M. Vancouver ensis\ 

 had yet emerged from the burrows.^ 



FOOD. 



The principal food of the eastern woodchuck is clover, alfalfa, and 

 grass, and the animals do considerable dama^ge to these crops both 



1 Audubon & Baclimaii. Quad. N. Am., 1, 1849, p. 22. 



2 Osborn, S. E. The Observer, III, 1892, p. 32. 

 awarren, E. R. Mamm. of Colorado, 1910, p. 148. 



4 Swarth, H. S. Univ. of California Pub. ZooL, X, 1912, p. 90. 



