x A LITTLE BROTHER OF THE BEAR 285 
incessantly ; and never were gayer at this sport 
than in midwinter—this was in Philadelphia — 
paddling about and playing with fragments of 
floating ice. ‘“ Indeed,” says Dr. Godman, “these 
animals have never evinced the slightest dislike 
to cold, or suffered in any degree therefrom ; they 
have in all weathers slept in a flour-barrel thrown 
on its side, with one end entirely open, and with- 
out any material of which to make a bed. They 
show no repugnance to being sprinkled or dashed 
with water, and voluntarily remain exposed to the 
rain or snow, which wets them thoroughly, not- 
withstanding their long hair, which, being almost 
erect, is not well suited to turn the rain.” 
It is evident that creatures so tough as this 
would not waste much time in winter torpidity 
anywhere south of New York or St. Louis. Cer- 
tainly they do not hibernate to any extent in 
southern New Jersey, where, by the way, they 
are becoming rare. Wherever hibernation does 
take place it is probably due more to hunger than 
to cold. Thus Mr. Burroughs tells us that in the 
western Catskills the ’coons appear in March and 
go “creeping about the fields, so reduced by starva- 
tion as to be quite helpless, and offering no resist- 
ance to my taking them up by the tail and carrying 
them home.” It is at this inhospitable season 
that they come to the farmer’s house, burrow 
under his haystacks in search of mice, and invade 
his poultry-yard ; a little later, too, as soon as the 
