AKIMALS THAT SLEEP THROUGH THE WINTER. 109 



enabled the animal to gather suffices to keep up the 

 glimmering spark of life. The warmth of the body 

 sinks to a few degrees above the freezing point ; the 

 hmbs stiffen and become almost insensible to injury. 



This, however, is not true of all animals exposed 

 to the same degree of temperature ; and why some 

 should hibernate, as it is called, and others should 

 not, is no more known than that some hibernate in 

 winter and others in summer — though, to be sure, 

 " hibernate " is scarcely the right word to use in the 

 latter case, since the Latin word from which it is de- 

 rived means winter. Many of the smaller mammals 

 as well as reptiles and insects in Europe and America 

 pass the colder part of the year in this way. Like 

 the water rat, they sleep. 



" When the cold weather comes and the water plants die, 

 And his little brooks yield him no further supply, 

 Down into his burrow he cozily creeps. 

 And quietly through the long winter-time sleeps."' 



But to find those that take these long naps in the 

 hot season we must go to the tropics. 



In Madagascar, where the weather is always very 

 warm, there is, as in most hot climates, a wet and a 

 dry season. There are numbers of little busy, tailed 

 creatures that sleep for many weeks during the hottest 

 part of the year in nests of twigs and leaves that they 

 have, birdlike, built in the trees. They belong to 

 the lemur tribes, and are called dwarf lemurs or mouse 

 lemurs, or cheirogales, which last name is from two 

 Greek words, and means " with hands like a weasel." 

 These little animals which are not so large as a rat, de- 



