A SEMIANNUAL SLEEPER. 251 



He is the most remarkable of all hibernating ani- 

 mals ; no other creature sleeps so profoundly or so 

 long. Only the little flying squirrel is at all like him. 

 The gray squirrel sleeps exclusively through the se- 

 verest part of winter ; the chipmunk wakes up to 

 partake of his plentiful stores, and quite frequently 

 takes a peep at the outside world, and the chickaree 

 is abroad all winter except when it is violently cold. 

 But the woodchuck is a sleeper. All the preparation 

 he makes for the cold and foodless winter is an inor- 

 dinate stuffing of himself with red clover in the latter 

 part of September. He enters his hole, therefore, 

 with excessively sleek and fat sides, and somehow or 

 other lives on his accumulated fat through the long 

 season of ice and snow. In his dormant state the 

 heart action is greatly slackened and respiration is 

 only detected by an instrument designed for the pur- 

 pose, which must be very delicately adjusted. He can 

 be rolled about like a ball without seeming to be in 

 the slightest way inconvenienced or disturbed ; he 

 will awaken in a warm room, but goes to sleep 

 again without an effort. Of course, with warm sur- 

 roundings and plenty of food he will not sleep as 

 he does in a state of Nature ; but his hereditary 

 habit is strong, and he can never be called thor- 

 oughly awake in midwinter under the best of cir- 

 cumstances. 



