[AQ] This animal is very common in all the southern parts of Russia, principally in the most fertile countries and the best cultivated. He is not even rare in Tartary and the most southern parts of Siberia. In the desarts they live a wandering life; and they choose from preference those places where there is a great quantity of liquorice, the seeds of which serve them for provision. THE BOBAK,[AR] AND OTHER MARMOTS. [AR] This is its Polish name. It is called _switsch_ from the cry of the animal. The name of the _Strasburgh marmot_ has been affixed to the hamster, and that of the _Poland marmot_ to the bobak (_fig. 171._). But it is as certain, that the hamster is not a marmot, as it is probable the bobak is one; for he only differs from the marmot of the Alps by the colour of his hair, which instead of being brown is rather a pale yellow: he has also a thumb, or claw, to the fore-feet, while the marmot has only four toes and no thumb; but in every other respect they perfectly resemble, which makes us presume they do not form two distinct species. It is the same with respect to the monax, or Canadian marmot, which some travellers have termed the _whistler_: he only seems to differ from the marmot by the tail, which is longer and thicker of hair. Therefore the Canadian monax, the Poland bobak, and the Alpine marmot, appear to be all the same animal, which from the influence of different climates have undergone those alterations we have before particularized. As this species prefers the coldest and highest mountains, and inhabits Poland, Russia, and other parts of the north of Europe, no wonder it is found in Canada, where it is only somewhat less, a circumstance not particular to it alone; for all animals common to both continents are smaller in the new than in the old.