The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-03-02
alternating Animals.

The badger, dormouse, porcupine,
hamster and many others enter more
or less into this strange condition of
Information, while the cases of partial
Information are extremely common,
hares having been found buried in the
snow for weeks, and even sheep have
shared the same fate without injury.
The dormouse erects its winter home
of various grasses four or five feet
from the ground, and so skilfully are
they interviewer and joined together.
that the closest discernment is neces-
sary to distinguish the entrance-that,
indeed, is only known to the animal
itself. Soft MOSES line the home,
among which the sleepers lie until
early spring, often awakening while
snow is yet upon the ground. From
now until warmer days they merely
sleep, awakening from time to time to
feed from store of nuts laid up for
the occasion. In southern countries,
where the intense heat is as fatal to
animal life as the lowering temporal
ture of the far north or south, a similar
condition is entered into by many
animals, known as nstivation. In COLI
lecting about Bahia Blanca, in Sep1
TENDER, Darwin unearthed spiders,
lizards, and toads, all in a lethargic
condition. A week later they began
to appear of their own accord, and
three days before the equinox all nature
was prepared to greet it. Many aliga-
tors and crocodiles pass the dry periods
in similar manner. The mud cases
of the marsh crocodile are often found
in Ceylon, and have been taken out
perfect casts of the animal, telling the
story of its Information. This habit of
the crocodile has been the cause in
various countries, especially Ceylon, of
ludicrous incidents. In one, an English
officer had retired to his tent, which
suddenly rose in air, with all its fur
niture, out of the wreck of which ap-
peared an awakened crocodile that was
here alternating, the fire built without
having, perhaps, disturbed its repose,
to the establishment and confusion of
campers-out. The yellow snake of
Jamaica, that attains a length of
twenty feet, excavates burrow for
purposes of partial Information, while
our snakes of the north are well known
top ass the entire winter in the deepest
sleep. Among the vertebrate sleepers
OF the south is found the tanrec of
Madagascas, that, burrowed in the sand,
sleeps away three months of the year
With hardly an exception, the mollusks
of the Mediterranean provinces lie dor
mant throughout the summer. Many
fishes are perfect hibernators, lying in
the mud during the cold season, or, in
the south, passing the season Of
drought in sun baked cases, in almost
perfect sleep. Not only during one
season is this kept up, but several
and, in India, ponds that have been
dry for extended periods, when filled
were, as if by magic. populated with
the awakened finny sleepers.
Are not our trees in winter sleep
ing? The sap has ceased to flow
E their growth has stopped, and all thei
functions are at rest. Seeds lie dor
mant for years., Corn taken from thu
Aztec tombs has been awakened (?) il
! the present decade, a process analogous
, to the awakening of animal life from
summer and winter sleep.-Ne,o Yor1
Ecening Post.