104 THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 



behavior on the second of FelDruary has no relation 

 ^vhatever to the weather we are to have later in the 

 season. This is coming to be pretty generally under- 

 stood. While the newspapers each year comment 

 upon the groundhog and his shadow upon that day, 

 year by year the notice has more of humor in it, and 

 fewer people pay any attention to it. 



As for the backboned animals which are cold- 

 blooded, these must, unless they are fish, give up the 

 struggle completely, bury themselves in out-of-the- 

 w^ay places, and go worse than dormant. They often 

 become absolutely cold and stiff. In the case at least 

 of fish, it is quite possible for them to be frozen stiff, 

 even to be enclosed in cakes of ice, and still to recover 

 if the encasement is not too long continued. But 

 the snakes, the turtles, the toads, the lizards, all 

 are hidden beneath the ground waiting in abso- 

 lutely unconscious rest the return of warmer 

 weather. 



After the need for food and shelter comes the con- 

 tinually recurring necessity on the part of almost 

 every type of animal to escape from the unwearying 

 persecution of higher creatures which Avould feed 

 upon it. The whole creation is a constant network of j 

 animals which prey upon each other. It is the fate of 

 a great majority of all creatures to fall victim to other 

 animals to whom they serve as food. Accordingly na- 



