50 PlflLOSOPHY OF Z0QL0GY. 



Many of those, animals, particularly such as belong to the- 

 great natural family of gnawers, make provision in their 

 retreats, during the harvest months. The marmot, it is 

 true, lays up no stock of food ; but the hamsters fill their 

 storehouses with all sort of grain, on which they are sup- 

 posed to feed, until the cold becomes sufficiently intense to- 

 induce torpidity. The Gricetus gUs, or migratory hamster 

 of Pallas, also lays up a stock of provision. And it is pro- 

 bable that this animal partakes of its store of food^ not only 

 previous to torpidity, but also during the short intervals of 

 reviviscence, which it enjoys during the season of lethargy.. 

 The same remark is equally applicable to the dormouse. 



Having thus made choice of situations where they are 

 protected from sudden alterations of temperature, and ha- 

 ving assinncd a p<)sitit)n similar to that of their ordinary 

 repose, these hybernating animals fall into that state of in- 

 sensibility to external objects, which we are now to examine 

 more minutely. In this torpid state they suffer a diminu- 

 tion of temperature ; their respiration and circulation be- 

 come languid ; their irritability decreases in energy ; and 

 they suffer a loss of weight. Let us now attend each of 

 these changes separately. 



1. Dimimshed temperatui'e. — When we take in our hand 

 any of these hybernating torpid animals, which we are 

 now considering, they feel cold to the touch, at the same 

 time that they are stiff', so that we are apt to conclude, with- 

 out farther examination, that they are dead. This reduction 

 of temperature is not the same in all torpid quadrupeds. 

 It varies according to the species. Hunter informs us *, 

 on the authority of Jennek, that the temperature of a 

 hedgehog, in the cavity of the abdomen towards the pelvis, 

 was 95°, and at the diaphragm was 97° of Fahrenheit, in 



• « Observations on certain parts of the Animal Economy," p. 99. 



