* 



200 THE SLEEPING HOMES OF ANIMALS 



permanent sleeping - quarters. Like the Australian 

 black, who, when presented with a house, pointed out 

 the peculiar advantages offered by square buildings, 

 because they always offered a wall to sleep against, 

 outside ', whichever way the wind blew, they have to shift 

 their quarters according to the weather. With these 

 limitations, pigs are extremely clever in choosing sleep- 

 ing quarters. The wave of heat during the second 

 week of August was preceded by two days of very low 

 temperature and rain. In a row of model pigsties, 

 during these cold days, nothing was visible but a large 

 flat heap of straw in each. This straw was ' stuffed ' 

 with little pigs, all lying like sardines in a box, keeping 

 each other warm, and perfectly invisible, with the straw 

 for a blanket. Then came the heat, and some hundred 

 swine were let loose in a paddock. By noon the whole 

 herd were lying in the shadow of a large oak, every pig 

 being fast asleep, close together in the shade circle. In 

 another meadow two flocks of Ailesbury ducks were 

 also fast asleep in the grass, in the shadow of the oaks. 

 But social animals, which live in herds and often move 

 considerable distances in search of their daily food, are 

 known to resort to fixed sleeping-places on occasion. 

 Among the wildest and least accessible creatures of the 

 Old World are the wild sheep. Hunters in the Atlas 

 Mountains commonly find chambers in the rocks which 

 the aoudads, or Barbary wild sheep, use to sleep in. 



