128 AUTUMN AND WINTER 



his doubts, that some of the swallows hid themselves in mud, 

 like the pike and the frogs, or in rotten wood like the bats. 

 It is a question whether one action is much more strange 

 than the other. Hibernation is, at any rate, a parallel 

 marvel to migration. The trouble with animals is to find 

 food and warmth in winter. One set surmount the difficulty 

 by chasing the sun. Another by reducing vitality to such 

 a point that food is unnecessary. A third, taking a yet more 

 simple course, die. 



The winter sleep is very like death. Pull away a 

 panel of loose bark and see underneath the almost scorpion 



A CURVED PANEL OF LOOSE BARK' 



pattern, that tells its own tale. The moth grooved a tunnel 

 for her eggs ; and in the mouth of the tunnel ' died sweetly, 

 her end accomplished.' In the spring, the young emerged 

 from either side, tunnelled their way to freedom, leaving the 

 pattern of their paths in perpendiculars to the central 

 groove where the eggs were laid. If one is lucky one 

 may find in the moss at the foot of the tree a queen wasp 

 sleeping on to the winter. How little difference between 

 the wasp and the moth, save that the fertility of the one 

 gives her some heat of vitality which will keep her alive 

 through months of storm and cold. 



The law of hibernation is not very precise in detail. We 

 cannot quite say that these creatures hibernate and those do 



