CHAPTER II 
THE TAIGA, OR CONIFEROUS FOREST, AND 
ITS FAUNA 
STRIKINGLY different from the fauna of the tundra 
is that of the temperate forest, which forms a wide 
belt in the northern hemisphere, lying just south of 
the tundra. Here the climate is more favourable, 
especially in the southern portion, and the flora far 
more luxuriant. Nevertheless here, as in the tundra, 
the ebb and flow of plant life is caused by the seasons, 
that is, by the varying amounts of heat received. In 
subtropical countries, with their winter rainfall, it is 
water, not heat, which determines vegetative activity. 
In the tropics, except where there is a well-marked dry 
season, vegetative life is practically continuous, but in 
the temperate forest zone, no less than in the drier 
steppes, it is the alternation of summer and winter 
which is of importance. As all animal life in these 
regions ultimately depends upon land plants, this means 
that there are periodic alternations of plenty and 
scarcity. In the forest zone, however, this is less 
marked than in the steppe zone. In the coniferous 
forests the trees for the most part keep their leaves all 
the year round. However deep the snow, the twigs 
and branches of the trees are exposed, and these twigs 
and branches very often carry nuts, berries, or seeds, 
which persist throughout the winter, and thus prolong 
the summer abundance into the time of scarcity. 
Further, the forest gives shelter, and thus diminishes | 
