The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-16
PRE- SEPARATIONS FOR WINTER.

If we have been observing the actions
 of our wild neighbors during the last
 few weeks we shall have become im-
 pressed with the fact that many of
 them at least are as well aware of the
 approach of winter as we are ourselves.
 Some of them. like the squirrels and
 chipmunks, began to make prepara
 tions for it months ago, by building
 warm nests and laying in supplies of
 food. Others did not seem to trouble
 themselves until the first frosts of Sep
 tember warned them of colder weather
 to come, and they have been hard at
 work ever since.
 The preparation required by some of
 the animals is very slight, The frogs
 and the turtles, for instance, neither make nests nor store away food for the winter; when they feel that the cold has come to stay, they simply settle down under the mud at the bottoms of the swamps and ponds, or crawl under the damp leaves in holes and hollow stumps, and remain there until spring. once came across a large green frog, whilst digging out woodchuck in the middle of January He was under sev- eral inches of leaves near the entrance of the burrow, and I turned him over with my spade. He was quite inactive, and made not attempt to escape; and the light seemed to hurt his eyes, for he blinked and kept them closed most of the time. l took him home, and af- ter he had been in pan of water for a few minutes he was lively enough, but when I gave him pile of leaves, he crawled under them and never re- until the spring.
 Snakes are just as easily suited. They crawl into holes in the ground, beneath the roots of trees. CT beneath hollow stumps, and coil themselves up, sometimes in masses of two hundred or more individual, intertwined So as to form ball Such ball was un- earthed, few years ago, in mfdwinter, at Sound Beach, Conn.,, by the em- ployes of the Southern New England company, who had occasion to remove a badly decayed telephone pole. The local superintendent, who was present, told me there were at east two hundred snakes in the bunch. l md killed them with crowbars.
 The squirrels are more particular in- lividuals, int ertwned so as to form a All of them build snug nests for them selves and most of them store away ood. The gentle little flying squirrel las already retired for the winter and | lnless we have an unusually warm | lay we are hardly likely to see him ! lgain until March Hollow trees are | he sites he usually selects for his bed | f soft bark and leaves, but sometimes ! le makes a nest in the branches. At | imes he builds in the roofs of old Iouses, or between the double walls of l n ice-house, and I have known him to pend the winter in the old birds nest. Ie stores away no food, for he is a true ibernator, and will need none until he ,akes up again in the spring.
 The gray squirrel are still out every ay. and for some time have been yorling on their big nests of leaves and rass and sticks, which they are mak- 1g in the branches of the trees. In ome cases they have utilized the old esls of crows and hawks, roofing them yer and lining them with grass and adar bark. I saw 9 gray squirrel the ther day, gathering dried grass for his est He plucked 1t from the ground .ith his mouth, a bit at a time, and hen he had gathered a large bunch e darted up the tree which he had se- cted for his winter quarters. In some aces the gray squirrels nest in hollow ees, but most of those have observed lild in the branches. They do not use leir nests as much as the flying squir-
 is do, for they sleep In the very cold eather only. On the moist, warm dey
 the winter we shall see them out, s aping through the trees and visiting