ANIMAL DEPENDENCE ON WEATHER 51 



of a Highland loch, shows how carefully wild-duck 

 mothers guard their broods against the rain. A 

 sharp shower has whitened the waters of the lake, 

 and all the little bee-like ducklings have been hurried 

 to the shore, and crowd round the old ducks, which 

 stand with wings outstretched shielding the babies 

 from the pelting drops. 



Frost and snow, if only there be food, seldom injure 

 any creatures but the small birds. Sheep will grow fat 

 in a frost, even though the snow is lying unthawed 

 on their thick, oil-soaked, non-conducting fleeces. 



Drought and dry heat always mean healthy seasons 

 for all wild animals in this country, where food and 

 water never really fail. Cows, ponies, and deer put on 

 more flesh from a pound's weight of dried-up grass 

 than from two of water-logged pasture, and horses 

 which can take a roll in a dust-bath after a day in 

 the sun are in better condition than after careful 

 grooming following a day's driving in mud and rain. 



Considering the dislike of animals for rain and 

 its injurious effect on their health, it is curious 

 that more have not learned to build houses of some 

 kind. Besides the squirrels and the dormice, the 

 orang-outang is almost the only mammal which 

 makes a shelter from the weather, and that a poor 

 one. 1 It is only their magnificent condition of health, 

 due to their being all teetotalers and having to work 

 for their living in the open air, that enables most 

 land animals and birds to stand continuous wet. 



1 The holes of burrowing animals are used more as a refuge from living 

 foes than as shelters from the weather, and such burrows are commonly full 

 of water and uninhabitable in wet seasons. 



