CHAPTER VII* 

 ANIMAL DEPENDENCE ON WEATHER 



CONTINUOUS wet and darkness sensibly reduces the 

 vitality of well-housed human beings and disposes 

 them to sickness. How then do the animals, which 

 have no protection from the weather, or a foot of dry 

 soil on which to lie or stand, endure week after week 

 of damp and cold ? The answer must be that they 

 endure it how they can, but that of all conditions of 

 weather, rain and damp are those most injurious to 

 them. 



From the sheep in the sodden folds to the deer 

 on the Highland hills, all suffer. Even the common 

 remark that a wet day is " fine weather for young 

 ducks" 'is wrong, for in the very wettest summers 

 of the last ten years nearly all the young ducks 

 died. One heavy shower is often sufficient to kill 

 young water-birds that are exposed to it. Their 

 breasts are covered with a dense coating of springy 

 down, which holds the air like patent " cellular " 

 underclothing, so that the ducklings float on a 

 kind of lifebuoy and waterproof combined ; but 

 their backs are not so well covered, and a very little 

 wetting from above is fatal to them. A charming 

 picture, sketched by Mr. John G. Millais at the side 





