WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 
It is a curious fact that bears never hibernate in cap- 
tivity, at least no instance has been on record to the 
knowledge of the writer, although in Europe the brown 
bear is known to do so in a state of nature. 
SUPPOSED HIBERNATION OF BIRDS. 
Many cases can be brought forward to prove that 
migratory birds are frequently found in a torpid state 
during the winter, and which upon being placed in a warm 
room soon revive, and possibly with care and proper food 
may be recovered ; but I fail to find any instance of any 
kind of bird surviving under any circumstances without 
food for two or three weeks or as many months. Unless 
the animal is able to support life for many weeks in a state 
of hibernation it would be a failure to sleep or become 
torpid for a day or two only. Any animal that becomes 
torpid without the power of hibernating must necessarily 
die if allowed to remain in that state. The obj ect of hiberna- 
tion is to pass away time, and preserve the animal’s life 
during the season when its food cannot be obtained. Now 
if birds of any kind were able to do this, we should have 
no difficulty in finding abundance of proof of their capa- 
bility of doing so. That a few unfortunate migratory birds 
are every year left to perish by the cold and want of food 
is well known, and the fact of landrails being more 
frequently found than most other birds is easily explained. 
No doubt many pass the winter in Great Britain in 
sheltered situations (the late Mr. Yarrell, in his British 
Birds, gives instances of landrails being killed throughout 
the winter months), where they find a sufficiency of food 
to support life ; a very scanty supply would answer, for, be 
it observed, the landrail becomes excessively fat in the 
autumn, and, like the animals that hibernate, this store of 
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