ENGLISH ANIMALS IN SNO W 205 



windows, and leave them scattered over the lawn. 

 Then came the snow, and the improvident squirrels 

 had to set to work at once and call in all these 

 scattered investments at an alarming sacrifice, for the 

 nuthatches very soon found out their carelessly hidden 

 property and made off with it. Fortunately the snow 

 soon melted, or they might have been reduced to short 

 rations. 



Like the squirrels, rabbits seem rather to enjoy the 

 snow at first. Like many men, they require a dry, 

 bracing atmosphere, and sea-breezes and frost suit 

 them ; and the morning after a snowfall their tracks 

 show where they have been scratching and playing 

 in it all night. But after a deep fall they are soon 

 in danger of starving. Though not particular as to 

 quality, they like their meals "reg'lar," and with 

 all the grass covered with a foot of snow their main 

 supply of food is cut off. If there is a turnip-field 

 near, they will scratch away the snow to the roots, 

 and soon destroy the crop. If not, or if the surface 

 of the snow is frozen hard, the hungry bunnies strip 

 the bark from the trees and bushes. In the long 

 frost of February, 1888, we saw nothing but bare 

 white wood in the fences near the warrens. Ivy bark 

 seemed their favourite food, and even the oldest stems 

 were stripped, making a white network against the 

 trunks of the big trees. Even these did not quite 

 escape, for though the lower bark was too hard and 

 dry even for the rabbits, broken limbs of a foot in 

 diameter, smashed by the weight of snow, were peeled 



