DCHP-2

siffleur siffler, siffleu (in older use). [< Cdn F "whistler"] DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

• 1a n.

  a large marmot, Marmota caligata, of the western mountains.

  See also: hoary marmot  

  • 1703  [[We saw] little beasts called Siffleurs or Whistlers. . . .]
  • 1824  (1955)  The Whisle . . . seems to sound a retreat & into their dens [;] nor will they Whisle when near their habitations?from the singular powers of whistling of this animal, the Canadians have given them the appropriate appellation of Siffleu or the Whistlers.
  • 1858  (1863)  . . . the only animal which we have seen is the siffleur, whose shrill whistle we heard for the first time close to our encampment. . . .
  • 1890  We observed moose and reindeer . . . wolverines, sitfleurs. . . .
  • 1966  . . . there . . . the Sikannis . . . could snare the marmot, the siffleur . . . the little haunter of the barren heights

• 1b n.

  the flesh of the hoary marmot used as food.

  • 1808  (1960)  They gave us a siffleur which is the first fresh meat we tasted since our departure.
  • 1825  (1955)  He saw very few Indians who barely existed on Fish & Siffler.
  • 1949  They dined on "delicious siffleur" which tasted on the tongue like "very delicate mutton or the fat of sucking pig."
  • 1963  Hector's party also tried dried siffleur and goat meat, but found it was . . . rather highly flavoured. . .

• 1c n.

  the skin of the hoary marmot.

  • 1824  (1955)  The Thecannies with their Siffleu Robes look like as many half drowned Rats crawling amongst the willows copiously bedaubed with mud & mire.

• 2 n. — North, Obs.

  a ground squirrel, Spermophilus undatus.

  See also: ground squirrel  

  • 1853  The larger [marmots] were of greyish yellow above, with an orange tint upon the throat and belly. These were the "tawny marmots," called sometimes "ground-squirrels," and by the voyageurs, "siflleurs," or "whistlers."
  • 1896  (1898)  Ground squirrels or "siffleux" as they are known to the Company's people, are a characteristic feature of the barren portions of Arctic America.
  • 1896  (1898)  I collected a few siffleux, one of which I boiled to test the quality of its flesh; it tasted much as a house rat looks.