THE WINTERERS 127 



The fields themselves vanish under snow. The beasts are 

 all close cooped up, and will come out in spring thin and 

 weak and almost blind, as if they were experiencing a 

 resurrection. It is a place ' where no birds sing.' Life 

 in England does not vanish with this completeness. The 

 robin and wren and thrush will sing. The honeysuckle and 

 blackberry are in leaf. The rabbits line the spinney-side 

 morning and evening. 



Yet almost every living thing even in England prepares 

 against winter in some degree. One may call the putting on 

 of the winter coat a sort of hibernation : it is a method of 

 wintering. In the north where winter is winter, birds and 

 beasts, ptarmigan, or willow grouse, hares and ermines, 

 clothe themselves in white. Sometimes in some measure 

 stoats in the south of England whiten. A very beautiful 

 stoat, just half white and half red, was captured not many 

 years ago in Surrey; but it is only in the north that the 

 change is general. It has generally been supposed that this 

 seasonal change is an example of protective coloration. The 

 ermine whitens because the white coat is an aid to hunting. 

 The hare whitens because it is less easily seen by the hunters. 

 But it is more than doubtful whether this is the master reason. 

 The change is probably correlated with a general alteration 

 of the tide of life. The old hairs whiten in some cases, 

 while in others new white hairs take the place of the old. 

 The white coat is in nearly all cases warmer than the dark 

 coat, and there is some reason to believe that it affects the 

 wellbeing of the animal quite apart from any effect in pro- 

 tecting its life from violence or helping it to food. 



The whitening ptarmigan as certainly makes ready for 

 winter as the swallows, who migrate, gathering very 

 obviously together to give one another nerve for the 

 great journey. It was once held, even Gilbert White had 



