The Musezim Gazette 



them die on the approach of cold. In some tribes, as in bees 

 and wasps, there is a wholesale deliberate massacre. The 

 survivors, as a rule, hibernate, some, as bees, with a pro- 

 vision of food ; others, as butterflies, wholly without. The 

 latter creep in protective corners and crevices, and are ready, 

 as all know, to be prematurely roused by a few days of un- 

 usual warmth, long before the spring is really established. 

 In the case of many insects, probably only a few representa- 

 tives survive the winter, but their extraordinary fertility 

 usually supplies the wonted summer population. 



It is common to almost all fur- or hair-bearing animals to 

 thicken their coats as winter approaches. A dense under- 

 growth of soft hair or wool takes place, which is equivalent 

 to an additional flannel jacket. Very curiously, the Goat 

 family, excepting in Arctic regions, appear almost wholly 

 to fail in this provision, whilst their near relatives, Sheep, 

 carry it almost to excess. 



Of the whole family of Birds it may be said that " dowered 

 with the fatal gift" of wings, no special instincts of winter 

 protection have been developed. With them, migration takes 

 the place of hybernation, and they do not trouble to build either 

 storehouse or barn. Their nests are for nursery purposes only. 

 The consciousness of ability to change place easily in case 

 of inclement times, appears to produce a light-hearted care- 

 lessness as to the winter's needs. They waste the autumn's 

 wealth of berries and seeds in the most reckless manner, 

 gaining only as a winter preparation a great accumulation 

 of fat upon their bodies. Yet they are warm blooded, very 

 much so, and they are not able to fast long. The result is, 

 that if a severe winter comes, a great many of our resident 

 birds die. We have used the word migration in a wide sense. 

 A great many birds which are not true migrants, yet change 

 locality on the wing very freely. There are, in fact, only 

 a few — of which, perhaps, the Robin is the best example — 

 which do not do so more or less. These home-stayers fre- 

 quent the haunts of men in winter, and flock about farmsteads 



