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. Tire 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' la pru-in-o'sus. 
2 Mar-mo' ta flav'i-ven-ter. 
