MUSK-RATS AND SQUIRRELS. 83 



in winter ; but in summer the same experiment results 

 inevitably in starvation. 



This evidence of optional hibernation is, I consider, far 

 more wonderful than any power to foretell the character 

 of a coming season, which, in the case of the musk-rat, or 

 of the squirrel judging the one by the houses it erects, 

 and the other by the food it stores away is a faculty 

 that I do not believe they possess. 



