The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1900-03-14
THEY LIKE THE COLD.
Animals That Hail SNOWY Winter
Time With Great Joy


Time With Great JOY.
When tho grip of frost tightens on
tho land and turns the soppy garden
beds and clayey piow lands to iron.
tender hearts are sorry for the song
birds whose delicate beaks cannot
pierce the frozen soil. And many
Imagine that all wild creatures feel
the bitter cold and suffer alike.
But this is O mistake. For many Of
the furred, and some even of the feath-
cred. tribes the frost and snow have no
ferrors. The hawks grow fat In SNOW
time. The keStral finds the snow
capital background against which to
view the small fry he feeds on, while
the sparrow hawk scars over the
clumps OF underbrush, watching for
the sparrows as they slip in and out Of
shelter All the weasel tribe rejoice.
To mono more than to the domestic
pussy does the cold bring joy. 1t is her
game season. Wild birds OF many
sorts, In the summer shy Inhabitants
or the woodlands, swarm into subur-
ban gardens and prove easier prey
then the sparrow.
Dogs revel in the clear, bright days
Of frost Even short coated fox ter
riers never seem to feel the cold, but
scamper madly over the stiff grass
and st. Bernards lose their summer
sieepiness and roll delightedly In the
powdcry snow.
The short, dark winter days of Can
nda's great northwest hold no terrors
for at least one creature. This is tho
wolverine, an ugly, bearlike beast, hut
ed and feared by all the trappers. Un-
seen himself, he follows the hunters
and watches them as they set their
traps, which they do In n long line ex-
tending sometimes as much as 80 miles
through the dense evergreen forest.
These he visits before the gray winter
dawn has broken and takes away the
bait, himself far too cunning to risk
capture. Or, if the trap already holds n
captive mink or crmine, this, too, he
tears away and devours at n safe dis
tance. Many are the stories told Of
this. the gzeed;est, most powerful and
suspicious creature of It's size known.
In the far north Of the same vast
solitudes the musk OK lives and -four.
ishes all the year around. Fifty below
zero does not matter to this quaint AMI
NAL with his immensely thick, furry
coat His sharp hoofs are suited to
perfection for scraping away the deep
snow and laying bare the thick lichen
and moss below 1t. Nothing but
warmth worries the little musk OK.
Mere freezing point Is to him Turkish
bath.
Another victim to warmth Is the
llama, yet 1t lives In ATTITUDES which
maps mark as tropical. It seeks nice,
cold place high on the windy table.
lands Of the Andes, and there proves
itself Of great value to the natives.
Water and food do not seem to worry
the llama, which carries It's burden
easily where even mules pant with dis.
tress in the thin atmosphere Of the
giant mountains. The camel Of tho
mountains, as the llama is called, small
as he is. will carry a load Of 100
pounds.
Dozens Of different creatures happily
dOze the winter away-bats and bears,
dormice and many others. One of the
least known, and yet most interesting
Of these, is the hamster. This little
brute Is the most savage ana unsoci.
able creature known. Each in n sepa.
rate hole far underground. the hamster
alternately sleeps on q couch of dry
grass or wakes to stuff himself almost
to bursting with the great store OF corn
and beans he has laid up in his w!ntes
larder. Winter is :c7 him the season
to rest and grow fat-Phiiadelphia In.
QuirSr.