28 NATURE'S STORY OF THE YEAR 



Many of our wild mammals seem not to sleep 

 more in winter than in summer. The mice and 

 voles and the weasel tribe are practically as active 

 in one season as in the other ; and the squirrel and 

 hedgehog, though popularly supposed to be dor- 

 mant throughout the cold period, are sometimes 

 abroad, even when the ground is frozen ; and then, 

 as at other times in winter, the former may be seen 

 busying itself amid the white seed-heads of wild 

 clematis, and the latter may be heard rustling the 

 thickest-laid leaves in a search for insects, or, at 

 evening, wandering openly in a wood. But when 

 warmer weather arrives they certainly become 

 more often visible. On sunny days the shrew may 

 be heard squeaking shrilly as it hurries terrified to 

 its hole, and the meadow vole (short-tailed field- 

 mouse) may be seen rambling in the litter of the 

 hedge, seeking now soft fruits of sycamore or 

 ash, which were overlooked in the abundance of 

 autumn. 



The notes of birds, however, suggest most fre- 

 quently the signs of spring. The wren mounts to 

 the topmost twig of every stack of dead wood in 

 which he has been hunting for food, and utters a 



