184 WASTE-LAND WANDERINGS. 



wounded by being pricked with a needle. "Would not 

 nervous prostration that produced insensibility, lasting 

 several hours, almost certainly produce death % In the 

 case of the bats, a torpid condition extending through 

 ninety hours produced no ill effects. I am disposed to 

 believe that the coming hot and dry weather was antici- 

 pated, and these bats retired for the purpose of escaping 

 it, and entered into a condition widely different from 

 ordinary sleep, which was to last until the so-called heat- 

 ed term was over, the lowering of the temperature being 

 the one means through which they would be restored to 

 consciousness. There occurs this deliberate action on 

 the part of certain mammals which regularly hibernate 

 — why should not the same be true of them when the 

 extreme is one of heat instead of cold ? 



As bearing upon this question, let me quote a few lines 

 from the Encyclopaedia Britannica — ninth edition — 

 article, Hibernation. It says: "The dormouse not only 

 hibernates, in the strict sense of the term, but will sleep 

 at intervals for several days together during mild weath- 

 er. When a Myoxus — an allied animal inhabiting Af- 

 rica — was brought to Europe, it hibernated as if this 

 were its normal habit. Whether it sestivates in its native 

 country is not known, but its hibernating in Europe 

 shows a greater power of adapting itself to changed 

 conditions of life than we should have been inclined to 

 suspect." 



I would briefly call attention to two points in the 

 above : that in temperate climates prolonged sleep is not 

 unknown among rodents, and also that some tropical 

 rodents probably sestivate. In the case of the white- 



