PLANTS AND ANIMALS IN WINTER. 333 



expert on the wing as though the year were one con- 

 tinual jubilee of insect chasing, and frost and snow 

 were to them unknown. 



All the carnivora, or flesh-eaters, as the mink, 

 skunk, opossum, fox and wolf, are in winter active 

 and voracious, needing much food to supply the neces- 

 sary animal heat of the body. Hence they are then 

 much more bold than in summer, and the hen yard or 

 sheep pen of the farmer is too frequently called upon 

 to supply this extra demand. 



But of all our animals it seems to me the birds 

 have solved the winter problem best. Possessing an 

 enduring power of night and a knowledge of a south- 

 ern sunny sky, beneath which food is plentiful, they 

 alone of all the living forms about us have little fear 

 of the coming of the frost. True, fifty or more species 

 remain in each of the Northern States during the cold 

 season, but they are .hardy birds which feed mainly 

 upon seeds, as the snow-bird and song sparrow; on 

 flesh, as the hawks and crows ; or on burrowing 

 insects, as the nuthatches and woodpeckers. 



Such are some of the solutions to the problem of 

 life in winter which the plants and animals about us 

 have worked out; such some of the forms which they 

 undergo; the places which they inhabit. 



To the thinking mind a knowledge of these solu- 

 tions but begets other and greater problems, such as 

 how can a living thing be frozen solid for weeks and 

 yet retain vitality enough to fully recover? How can 

 a warm-blooded animal sleep for months without par- 

 taking of food or drink? And, greater than either, 

 what is that which we call life ? 



