NATURE'S CALENDAR 



February 6 



similar fashion. Rotten logs, stumps, and 

 the insides of old trees make snug winter- 

 quarters for the two or three kinds of 

 lizards that live w^here it is too cold to be 

 abroad at all seasons, as they can be in 

 the Southern States. The snakes, how- 

 ever, have an unpleasant way of gathering 

 into a tangled, ball-like mass of a dozen 

 or more, after collecting in some den deep 

 in broken rocks, or underground — in an 

 old badger-hole, for example. 



Turtles and tortoises bury themselves 

 for the season deep in the ground. So 

 long as the weather remains steadily cold 

 they stay there until a time in the spring 

 varying with the different species; but 

 some, like the painted mud-turtle and the 

 speckled tortoise, will crawl out into the 

 sun during a prolonged " warm spell." 



This brings us to the birds and mammals 

 of winter, and gives us something to see 

 and study in our own gardens as well 

 as out in the snowy woods and fields. 

 " I am persuaded," exclaims Mr. Will- 

 iam E. Cram, in his capital book. Little 

 Beasts of Field aiid Wood, " that most of 

 us would be surprised to learn how many 

 wild animals of the bigness of a cat and 

 upward pass their lives in the midst of 

 cultivated districts without ever having 

 been seen by men. . . . In studying quad- 

 rupeds the chief thing to bear in mind is 

 that, with the exception of squirrels and 

 woodchucks. and possibly one or two 

 others, all of them have comparatively 



February 7 



