WAKING AND SLEEPING 9 



thigh baskets are stuffed with pollen and there is 

 honey in their sac. 



In a loft over the stable a dozen small tortoise- 

 shell butterflies have folded their painted banners, 

 and are hanging by hooked feet to a beam. They 

 belong to the only group of hibernating butterflies 

 in our country, and it is fairly certain that the 

 whole of the group has the habit. Some good 

 naturalists have mentioned quite casually having 

 seen half a dozen red admirals flying about in 

 midwinter, whereas others have expressed their 

 strong doubts as to whether this species hibernates 

 at all in this country. The comma, painted lady, 

 Camberwell beauty, and others of the same or 

 allied genus, undoubtedly hibernate, and the brim- 

 stone, which comes out from its bed-chamber in 

 February looking astonishingly neat and bright, 

 shows by that fact, and by other characteristics, 

 that if not rightly a Vanessid it is of very close 

 cousinship. 



The sleepers that you are most unlikely to see 

 abroad in January are the grass snake and the 

 adder. They sleep with great regularity till the 

 vernal equinox, the adder waking a little before 

 and the grass snake a little later than that prime 

 landmark of the year. Sunshine is their need 

 the bright golden sunshine of April, unchecked by 

 leaves and caught on some grassy bank, or sheltered 

 by a good hedge from the wind. The wise snake 

 knows how to find such a place as soon as the 

 sun is of the right strength, and so the wise 



