OEDEE OF EODENTIA. 
487 
And why these labours ? It is a precaution to guarantee 
warmth ; for the winter is approaching, when they will soon 
commence their lethargic sleep. In this warm litter of dry 
herbage they entirely bury themselves, after closing up the 
entrance to their retreat to further guard against the rigours of 
an Alpine winter. 
It is also believed that this hay serves them as food when they 
begin to awake from their torpor, and before herbage has had 
time to show through the late snow-covered surface. 
It is usually towards the end of November that the Marmots 
\ Fig. 211. — Common Marmot (Arctomys marmotta ). 
commence to hibernate, and its termination takes place in April ; 
but these limits are not fixed, and vary each year with the 
temperature. 
“ When the winter habitation of the Marmot is thrown open/ 5 
says Tschudi, “ the temperature is found to be about 80° to 
90° Beaumur. All the members of the family, no matter how 
numerous they may be, are lying one upon the other, rolled up, 
the head towards the tail, in a torpid state, as if they were dead. 
The seven or eight months of winter in these high regions would 
infallibly kill them, if this sleep did not guarantee their being 
able to maintain the quiet life of a plant.”* 
* Le Monde des Alpes. By F. de Tschudi. Translated from the German by 0. 
Bourrit. Yol. iii., p. 231. 
