WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 



It is a curious fact that bears never hibernate in cap- 

 tivity, at least no instance has been on record to the 

 knowledge of the writer, although in Europe the brown 

 bear is known to do so in a state of nature. 



SUPPOSED HIBERNATION OF BIEDS. 



Many cases can be brought forward to prove that 

 migratory birds are frequently found in a torpid state 

 during the winter, and which upon being placed in a warm 

 room soon revive, and possibly with care and proper food 

 may be recovered ; but I fail to find any instance of any 

 kind of bird surviving under any circumstances without 

 food for two or three weeks or as many months. Unless 

 the animal is able to support life for many weeks in a state 

 of hibernation it would be a failure to sleep or become 

 torpid for a day or two only. Any animal that becomes 

 torpid without the power of hibernating must necessarily 

 die if allowed to remain in that state. The obj ect of hiberna- 

 tion is to pass away time, and preserve the animal's life 

 during the season when its food cannot be obtained. Now 

 if birds of any kind were able to do this, we should have 

 no difficulty in finding abundance of proof of their capa- 

 bility of doing so. That a few unfortunate migratory birds 

 are every year left to perish by the cold and want of food 

 is well known, and the fact of landrails being more 

 frequently found than most other birds is easily explained. 

 No doubt many pass the winter in Great Britain in 

 sheltered situations (the late Mr. Yarrell, in his British 

 Birds, gives instances of landrails being killed throughout 

 the winter months), where they find a sufficiency of food 

 to support life ; a very scanty supply would answer, for, be 

 it observed, the landrail becomes excessively fat in the 

 autumn, and, like the animals that hibernate, this store of 



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