TOUCH. 209 



the great effort to be made in the spring) is exhausted 

 before its due season ; whilst, in the Alps, they lie 

 entirely dormant until the sun at once melts the snow, 

 and calls them into life and blossom. Gardeners, 

 accordingly, in the cultivation of the finer sorts of 

 auriculas, &c., have to imitate, as far as possible, 

 their native climate, by protecting them in a frame 

 or shed both from the severe frosts arid wet. 



Amongst the animals which take advantage of the 

 non-conducting property of snow, the white grous or 

 ptarmigan (Lagopus vulgaris, FLEM.) may be men- 

 tioned, which will burrow under the drifted wreaths, 

 picking up a scanty subsistence among the herbage 

 and seeds of heath for many weeks. This indeed 

 may be considered one of its destined and regular 

 habits*, and it no doubt feels as comfortable while 

 it is protected from the keen frosty gales of the 

 mountain by its snowy canopy, as does the partridge 

 of the low country when skulking for a similar pur- 

 pose under the lee side of a hedge ; but there are 

 two other native species of grous, the black-cock 

 (Tetrao tetrix), and the moor fowl (Lagopus Sco- 

 ticus, FLEMING), the latter peculiar to Britain, which 

 only resort to the same expedient when forced by 

 accident. The common shelter of both of these is 

 the higher and more bushy clumps of heath (Calluna 

 vulgar is, HOOKER) ; but when these, as occasionally 

 happens in most winters, become covered with snow, 

 the grous find it convenient to remain under cover, 

 rather than venture abroad, where they have less 

 chance of meeting with food and shelter. 



The care taken by insects to protect themselves 

 from cold we have elsewhere adverted tof, but may 

 here mention one or two facts by way of illustration, 



* See Olaus Magnus, Hist. Septentrion, xix. 33, for an inte- 

 resting account of the mode of hunting these birds, 

 f Insect Transformations, chap. xvii. 



I 



