Anticipation of Winter 335 



said that, although not absolutely necessary, his habit is 

 greatly out of place in our own rather dreary English 

 winters ; but its perpetuation is almost absurd in one of his 

 relatives, who keeps it up in the sunny climate of Madagascar. 1 



All our English Bats fatten in autumn and sleep through 

 the winter. They do not store food. 



Next come the little Shrews. They are not mice, that is, 

 not rodents, but belong, like the hedgehog and the bat, to 

 the insect-eaters (Insectivora). What do they do in winter? 

 We should like to know. 



The Mouse division of the great tribe of Rodents have most 

 of them, or at any rate many, two strings to their bows. 

 They both store up food and hybernate. Their winter sleep is 

 not nearly so profound as that of the hedgehog and the bat. 

 They rise occasionally, go to their stores, and then back to 

 bed. The squirrel, a rodent, but not exactly a mouse, has 

 the same habit. Hares and rabbits, although rodents, neither 

 store nor hybernate. No doubt they sleep a great deal, but 

 not continuously. They suffer much in long-continued snow, 

 and get thinner. The snow serves them a good purpose, how- 

 ever, in enabling them to mount upon it, and to reach stems 

 and twigs which would be otherwise inaccessible. Under 

 such conditions they live much on bark and do most pro- 

 voking damage. 



1 See Note on the Tenrec, p. 245. 



