180 WASTE-LAND WANDERINGS. 



About 2 p.m. to-day the heat reached its maximum 

 intensity ; every bird became silent, the scuttlers and 

 skaters ceased to fret the still waters, where they were 

 nearly shut off from the incoming tide. Even the har- 

 vest-flies stridulated less frequently, and one naturally 

 thought of those creatures in the tropics that escape in- 

 tense heat by a prolonged sleep, somewhat akin to the 

 hibernation of some of our mammals in winter. In 

 equatorial regions there occurs a true aestivation among 

 mammals. Does anything akin to it occur in New 

 Jersey ? Certainly, when we have days like this, it is 

 probable that all animal life is affected by the heat, yet 

 I find no reference to such influence of solar heat in 

 any work descriptive of the habits of our fauna. "What 

 is aestivation? In Stormonth's dictionary the defini- 

 tion is as follows : " The sleep or dormancy of animals 

 during the hot or dry season in warm climates; the 

 analogue of hibernation in cold regions." 



The condition of certain mammals, as reported to me 

 during the summer of 1884, brought the subject promi- 

 nently to mind, and I found that in past years I had 

 made many memoranda concerning unconscious animals; 

 but the full significance of which I did not, until re- 

 cently, recognize ; and, indeed, I may not now correctly 

 interpret the facts. 



The following is an instance of the supposed occur- 

 rence of aestivation, or something closely akin to it. 



A family of white-footed mice was found in an ex- 

 posed position in an open field ; the nest being made of 

 a few leaves and some thistle-down, under an old tin 

 pan, the bottom of which had nearly rusted away. 



