The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1898-01-08


stages of its lethargy. | say introduced
into the stomach, because it could get
into the stomach of such creature only
by force or artificial animals, for hibernat-
ing animal invariably goes into its peculiar
state on an empty stomach Why, |
do not know. That is one of the mystic
ries of the phenomenon But the most
mysterious of all things connected with
alternating animals is that, although bears
and woodchucks are profound hibernators,
they produce their young during their
winter sleep.
''The woodchuck is undoubtedly a per-
feet hibernator, and the female bear is
but the male bear is frequently reused from
his winter sleep, and is found roaming
about in midwinter. A bear hunt when
the snow is deep and the Geld intense is
not an uncommon relief to the monotony
of life in the backwoods, but the hunted
bear is invariably male | have talked
with scores of old and observant woodsmen
versed in the ways and haunts of wild
beasts, but none has ever been able to say
yet that he ever knew female bear to be
killed after the season for Information has
come, and none has ever yet seen a gravid
female bear. Where do the females 90
during that time, that they are never dis
turbed in their retreats? No one can say.
''The raccoon is often gregarious in its
alternating, and it may be for that reason
l Infra5nnnklx, f,,kl -,
snug quarters in the hollow tree and makes
foraging trips about the country-the
warmth engendered by the huddling colony
arousing one or more of its members from
their lethargy for the time Woodchucks
hibernate in pairs, but l never knew one
of these proverbially sleepy creatures to
leave its hole until warm weather came
i'll spite of the alleged practice it has of
coming out invariably on the second day
of February to fix the weather for the rest
of the winter. took the trouble once to
dig into a woodchuck' burrow on a Can
dlemas Day-and warm, cloudy day it
was; just such a day when the grounding
is said to come out of his hole and stay out
[ found two woodchucks in the burrow,
with no more sign of life about them than
if they had been shot and killed. From
all outward appearances could have taken
them out and had game of foot ball with
them without their knowing it.
''Squirrels are only partial hibernators
from the fact that they work all summer
and fall storing great quantities of food to
supply them when hunger wakes them up
during the winter, if, indeed, they spend
much of their time in sleep. Squirrels
are systematic and long headed providers
for the emergencies of long winter. and
not only stow away their favorite food in
one grand storehouse, but also make depos-
its of it in other places, so that if one gran
AIRY or nuttery is destroyed or becomes
exhausted the caches can be depended
upon. When the snow has lain on the
ground late in the spring, holes may be
seen in it at various places in the woods
where squirrels have dug down through it
to reach nuts or grains or acorns buried
in the ground there months before for just
such an emergency. The instinct with
which these little animals locate such spots
covered as they are with maybe foot or
more of snow, is unnerring and marvellous
If the snow should happen to be thickly
covered with crust the squirrels are una
bic to dig through it, and it is no rare
thing, toward the end of an unusually long
winter, for woodsmen to find squirrels dead
on the crust, where they had been digging
desperately to uncover the cache below,
the supplies at the main store having be-
come exhausted.
IA curious phenomenon of Information,
according to Professor Browne, is shown
in an animal called the loir, a native of
Senegal. This animal never hibernates in
its native cline, but every specimen that
was ever brought to Europe became torpid
as soon as exposed to cold The common
land tortoise, no matter where it may be.
and it is voracious feeder, goes to sleep
in November and does not waken up again
until May. The hedgehog goes to sleep
as soon as the weather gets cold and re-
mains in unbroken slumber six months.
AT the beginning of cold weather bats
begin to huddle together in punches in
hollow trees, dark corners in deserted
houses and in caves and crevices in the
rocks They gradually lose all sensibility
and continue in comatose state until the
return of genuine warm weather When
you see the first bat of the season futter-
ing at nightfall you can be sure that warm
weather has come to stay. The little
hooks at the end of one of the joints of
each wing are what the the bat hangs it's
elf up by when it goes to sleep, whether
for day or for months. When the bats
are clustering for Information, one of the
number hangs itself up by its hooks, head
downward, and the others cling to it. 1t
is on record that sixty bats have been
found in one cluster, the entire weight of
the lot being sustained by the one bat
clinging with its hooks to whatever it had
fastened them to at the start-a weight of
at least ten pounds. The position of the
central bat in such cluster would be like
that OF a man hanging to something by
his thumb nails and supporting the weight
of fifty-nine other men. So completely is
animation suspended in the bat during the
cold months that no test yet applied has
induced it to show the least sign of life
Torpid bats have been inclosed by the hour
in air-tight glass jars and not particle of
the oxygen in the jars has been exhausted
when they were taken out, showing that
the bats had not breathed.
''As cold drives certain animals, insects
and reptiles to state of torpidity, SO heat
and lack of water bring about the same
condition in others. The animal or rep
tile that hibernates, or goes to sleep in
cold weather, arranges its body SO that it
will conduce to the greatest warmth, while
those that estivate, or become torpid in
warm weather, place themselves in posi-
tions that show that they want all the cool
ness the climate will permit. The tenric.