of Animals to secure Warmth. 515 



cold season. Whereas, in our climate, these plants are ex- 

 posed alternately to the severe influence of frost (unprotected 

 by the covering of snow), and to long continued rains. Even 

 during the winter months our plants frequently commence 

 growing before the spring arrives, and thus are rendered more 

 obnoxious to the succeeding frosts ; and, in addition, the chief 

 strength of the plants (which should be reserved for the great 

 effort to be made in the spring) is exhausted before its due 

 season, whilst, in the Alps, they lie entirely dormant until the 

 sun at once melts the snow, and calls them into life and 

 blossom. Gardeners, accordingly, in the cultivation of the 

 finer sorts of auriculas, &c., have to imitate, as far as possible, 

 their native climate, by protecting them in a frame or shed 

 both from the severe frosts and wet. 



Amongst the animals which take advantage of the non- 

 conducting property of snow, the white grous, or ptarmigan 

 (Lagopus vulgaris, FLEM.), may be mentioned, which will 

 burrow under the drifted wreaths, picking up a scanty subsist- 

 ence among the herbage and seeds of heath for many weeks. 

 This, indeed, may be considered one of its destined and regular 

 habits * ; and it no doubt feels as comfortable while it is pro- 

 tected from the keen frosty gales of the mountain by its 

 snowy canopy, as does the partridge of the low country 

 when skulking for a similar purpose under the lee side 

 of a hedge ; but there are two other native species of 

 grous, the black cock (Tetrao Tetrix), and the moor fowl 

 (Lagopus Scoticus, FLEM.) ; the latter peculiar to Britain, 

 which only resort to the same expedient when forced by acci- 

 dent. The common shelter of both of these is the higher and 

 more bushy clumps of heath (Calluna vulgaris, HOOKER) ; 

 but when these, as occasionally happens in most winters, be- 

 come covered with snow, the grous find it convenient to 

 remain under cover rather than venture abroad where they 

 have less chance of meeting with food and shelter. 



It appears to arise from some instinctive presentiment of the 

 same kind, that sheep, during a snow-storm, always flee to the 

 nearest shelter, though this is certain to end in their destruc- 



* See Olaus Magnus, Hist. Septentrion, xix. 33, for an interesting account of 

 the mode of hunting these birds. 



