[Illustration: PRAIRIE DOGS.]
Between the lively, graceful, well-proportioned Squirrels and the
Marmots, with their squat bodies and sluggish movements, there is a
great difference. Yet, notwithstanding this, the Marmots are allied to
the Squirrel.
The Marmots are characterised by very long, powerful incisors, strong
claws, indicating burrowing habits, and by a tail of medium length,
somewhat thickly garnished with hair. They have short limbs, and from
that results the slowness of movement peculiar to them.
The Marmots inhabit different chains of mountains in Europe, Asia and
North America. They have nearly all the same habits; so that it will
suffice if we speak of the common species, the only one, in fact, which
has been well studied.
The Common Marmot lives on the high peaks of the Swiss and Savoy Alps,
in the vicinity of the glaciers. It forms small societies, composed of
two or three families, and digs out burrows on the slopes exposed to the
sun. These burrows have the form of the letter Y; the galleries are so
very narrow that it is with difficulty the human hand can be inserted
into them. At the extremity of one of these oblique shafts is found a
spacious chamber of an oval form, in which the proprietors rest and
sleep.
The Marmots in a state of nature live exclusively on herbage. They crop
off the shortest grass with wonderful rapidity. During fine weather they
love to stretch themselves out, frisk, play or bask in the rays of the
sun. Remarkable for caution, they never leave their retreats without
taking the greatest precaution; the old venturing first, after carefully
inspecting the neighborhood, then the others following. Feeding,
playing, or basking, they lose nothing of their vigilance, for as soon
as one has the slightest suspicion of danger, it utters a sharp bark of
warning, which is quickly repeated by those near it, and in an instant
the whole band rush into their burrow, or fly towards some place of
concealment.
After the Alpine Marmot, we may mention the Quebec Marmot, the Maryland
Marmot, or Woodchuck, which is peculiar to various parts of North
America, and the Bobac or Poland Marmot.
The Prairie Dog is an allied species, which lives in extensive
communities in the wild prairies of North America; their villages, as
the hunters term their burrows, extending sometimes many miles in
length. They owe their name to the supposed resemblance of their warning
cry to the bark of small Dog.