Hibernation Among Plants and Animals 



Harold B. Shinn 



" 'The north wind doth blow 

 And we shall have snow, 

 And what will Robin do then, 

 Poor thing? ' 



"And what will Muskrat do? and Chipmunk? and White foot?' 

 and little Chickadee? Poor things. Never fear. Robin has heard 

 the trumpets of the north wind and is retreating leisurely toward 

 the south, wise thing. Muskrat is building a warm winter lodge; 

 Chipmunk has already dug his but and bin, and so far down under 

 the stone wall that a month of zeros could not break in; Whitefoot, 

 the woodmouse, has stored the hollow poplar stub full of acorns, 

 and has turned Robin's deserted nest, near by, into a cozy house; 

 and Chickadee, dear thing, Nature herself looks after him. There 

 are plenty of provisions for the hunting and a big piece of suet 

 on my lilac bush. His clothes are warm, and he will hide his head 

 under his wing in the elm tree hole when the north wind doth blow, 

 and never mind the weather. 



'* The woodchuck's is a curious shift, a case of Nature out- 

 doing herself. Winter spreads far and fast, and Woodchuck, in 

 in order to keep ahead out of danger, would need wings. But he 

 wasn't given any. Must he perish then? Winter spreads far but 

 goes not deep; down only about four feet; and Woodchuck, if he 

 cannot escape overland, can, perhaps, underland. So down he 

 goes through the winter, down into a mild and even temperature, 

 five long feet away — ^but as far away from the snow and cold as 

 Bobolink among the reeds of the distant Orinoco. 



"Indeed, Woodchuck's is a farther journey and even more 

 wonderful than Bobolink's for these five feet carry him beyond 

 the bounds of time and space into the mysterious realm of sleep, 

 of suspended life, to the very gates of death. That he will return 

 with Bobolink, that he will come up alive with the spring out of 

 this dark way is very strange, for he went in most meagrely pre- 

 pared. He took nothing with him, apparently. The muskrat 

 built him a house and under the spreading ice turned all the 

 meadow into a well stocked cellar. The beaver built a dam, cut 

 and anchored under water a plenty of green sticks near his lodge 

 so that he, too, would be under water when ice formed, and have 

 an abundance of tender bark at hand. Chipmunk s]3cnt half his. 



