180 



DISCOVERY 



take up a similar habitat, but that only during the 

 dry season. They can endure a surprising amount of 

 cold, at any rate those of the temperate region, but 

 they will not survive being frozen hard as the carp 

 will. Frogs hibernate generally in masses together at 

 the bottom of ponds, but if reached by prolonged 

 frosts during exceptionally severe weather they 

 succumb. This is especially true of the younger 

 animals, the older being more experienced and more 

 successful in finding safe retreats. Frogs which have 

 just hibernated can stand complete immersion under 

 water for eight times the period which will suffice to 

 drown them during the breeding season. The many 

 and repeated accounts of frogs and toads having been 

 buried for centuries in holes in the solid rock and in 

 coal have never been substantiated and may be dis- 

 missed as fables. 



Reptiles 



Amongst the ReptUia anyone who has ever kept a 

 land-tortoise knows that it disappears underground 

 during the winter, and fresh-water tortoises hide away 

 in the banks or at the bottoms of rivers. Snakes and 

 lizards disappear into holes in trees or imder stones 

 and dry leaves. 



The terrapin, so beloved by epicures in the Southern 

 United States, dig themselves into holes during the 

 winter months, and they do not come out until the 

 spring is well advanced. The so-called box-tortoise, a 

 domestic pet in the United States, becomes very tame ; 

 but it must be allowed to hibernate. If kept in a 

 warm house they become fretful in the autumn, refuse 

 all food and drink, and are liable to die unless they 

 can find a cool place to hide away in and sleep for 

 months. If left out-of-doors they burrow into the 

 ground or sometimes hide under a heap of rubbish 

 weU out of the reach of the frost. But a warm April 

 day brings them back to life, and then their first 

 requirement is a little drink. The Greek and Moorish 

 tortoises, which are sold from barrows in our streets, 

 and are kept as garden pets, also require to hibernate, 

 and if lured from their winter homes by exceptionally 

 warm days in the early spring, are likely to suft'er in 

 health should a cold spell set in, for they are very much 

 less hardy than before they entered into retreat. The 

 gigantic land-tortoises from the Aldabra atoll bury 

 themselves for at least half a year. 



Another group of reptiles, the crocodile and alligator, 

 in the tropics a;stivate in the hardened mud ; they 

 have been known to exist in this state of seclusion 

 for a whole j'ear without food. Tennant, in his well- 

 known work on Ceylon, recalls the story of an officer 

 who, when camping out one night, was disturbed by 

 a curious movement underneath his bed : the move- 

 ment was explained in the morning by the emergence 



of a crocodile. Crocodiles will also hide away in mud 

 at the approach of danger, and like many another 

 animal they feign death. 



We have mentioned above that snakes and lizards 

 frequently hide away during the colder months, and 

 it is a curious fact that, should a viper be awakened 

 during its winter sleep, its bite is said to be harmless. 

 Whether this is so or not requires confirmation, but I 

 do not propose to try the experiment myself. 



Birds 



The naturalist of the eighteenth century, even the 

 gifted Gilbert White, believed that certain birds 

 hibernated. The disappearance of the swallow each 

 autumn, of the corncrake, nightingale, cuckoo, etc., 

 was by them accounted for by the idea that these 

 birds hid away sometimes under water, and rested 

 during the colder months. This view has now been 

 entirely given up, as it is now known that they retire 

 to warmer climates during the winter. 



Mammals 



Amongst mammals many species hibernate in the 

 temperate and colder regions of the world during the 

 winter. The well-known European hedgehogs, often 

 kept as pets in the gardens of Great Britain, are the 

 largest of our native Insectivores and they hibernate 

 completely. Unlike the squirrel, they store no food, 

 but retire into a bed of moss or leaves and roU them- 

 selves up into a ball with all their prickles outside, and 

 remain in seclusion until the spring warmth revivifies 

 them. 



There is another curious little Insectivore known 

 as the Tenrick, an animal possibly allied to the 

 marsupials of Australia and America. They are 

 generally found in the mountains of Madagascar, and 

 during the colder seasons of the year hibernate for a 

 long period. They fatten themselves up during the 

 spring, and in this condition are much sought after 

 by natives as an article of food. About May or June 

 they retire into deep burrows in the ground and do 

 not re-emerge until the following Christmas. 



The common raccoon, which is confined to America, 

 is particularly common in the Adirondacks. It 

 hibernates during the severest part of the winter ; as 

 Dr. Merriam tells us, " retiring to his nest rather 

 early and appearing again in February or March 

 accordmg to the earliness or lateness of the season." 



The same author records that the black bear also 

 " hibernates, although its torpor is not deep, and 

 the time of entering upon the winter repose depends 

 upon the severity of the season and the amount of 

 food-supply. The males will remain active in any 

 weather, so long as they can find abundance of food. 



