220 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



suit of grey and brown, puts on a white 

 plumage when the winter sets in ; and the 

 chestnut-brown stoat becomes the white ermine 

 snow-white all over save the black tip of the 

 tail. Now this white dress gives its possessor 

 a garment of invisibility against a background 

 of snow, enabling it to slink upon its victims 

 and to elude its enemies. But there is some- 

 thing more perhaps more important. For a 

 warm-blooded animal in very cold surroundings 

 the dress that loses least of the precious " animal 

 heat " of the body the heat that makes it easier 

 for the chemical process of the body to go on 

 is: a white dress. 



We must not follow this subject further, but 

 it is interesting to think out some of the other 

 ways in which land animals meet the difficulties 

 of the winter. What are the expedients adopted 

 by moles, by harvest-mice, by the mountain hare, 

 by squirrels, by the curlews on the moor, by the 

 slow-worms, by the frogs ? 



BETWIXT-AND-BETWEEN ANIMALS 



Of great interest are the betwixt-and-between 

 animals, at present making the transition 

 between water and dry land. On many tropical 



