The Alpine Marmot inhabits the Alps, Pyrenees, and other high mountains immediately below the region of perpetual snow. It is about the size of a hare, of a yellowish green color, tinted with an ashen hue about the head; the upper lip is cleft and whiskered. Marmots live in families, who mutually aid each other in excavating a common dwelling,--a chamber lined with dried grass, at the end of a passage, six or eight feet, in the form of the letter Y, one of the branches serving as an entrance, the other as a marmot KOODOO. |