The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-27
WILD ANIMAL WAYS IN WINTER.
A Curious Chapter in Natural His

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 tory.
 The devices of animal life to bridge over the winter season, and their ways
 and habits during this time, present ar interesting, indeed fascinating, page of nature Why certain forms should defy the elements and roam abroad, seeking
 a precarious livlihood, while others
 much stronger and apparently better equipped by nature to survive the
 struggle enter the strange and remark
 able winter sleep with all their func-
 tions in abeyance, and sleep aWy the
 winter, is one of the problems that is
 of more or less interest. The fox well
 illustrate the former with it's winter
 habit of proving over the snow.
 At the approach of winter, animals are affected in various ways. In the
 North all the reptiles-snakes, lizards,
 frogs and toads, vast concourse-dis-
 apear in most miraculous manner. | The snakes enter holes and crevices, l projecting themselves as far into the earth as possible, and, coied tightly,
 assume a condition, a state of coma, in 1 which they remain until the heat of l the sun comes to aweken them the fol- | lowing spring, when they appear, vo- | racous and eager for prey, to rehabili- | tate them physically after months of | fasting. The frogs plunge down into the mud of the ponds where they have
 made music during the long summer; and the same is true of turtles Liz
 ards affect the same places $ snakes and when taken out at this time are apparently lifeless. In some marvellous manner the functions of life are ar rested. There appears to be a minimum
 consumption of tissue; nature appar-
 ently making an exact calculation, the functions of life being so almost com pletely arrested that they are enabled to lie in this quiescent state without food or water, or until the food supply comes again and the conditions are fa- vorable to outdoor life.
 This is the case with the reptile of the eastern and middle states, or wher- ever there Is a cold winter, ice and snow; but on the Pacific slope, in southern California, in the sme latitude as the above a different condition holds. Here-and the San Gabriel val ley may be taken as an example--the lizards are subjected to a winter and summer evry "A hours. There is no snow, the days are bright and beauti- ful. resembling a cool eastern summer, and insect life does not disappear. All winter I have found lizards basking in the sun on these bright days, but as the winter day wears on and o'clock approaches, there is a very material al1; hot f, reptiian life at once. It is their winter, and just as the eastern lizard creeps down into the earth for shelter and en- ters it's winter sleep, so this California lizard crawls out of sight beneath rocks into crevices or under the bark of trees, and enters what is the equivalent of state of coma. It seems to shrivel, be- comes seemingly intensely cold, often stretches out it's entire length, and lies. to all intents and purposes dead and lifeless, in this way passing the night until 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning, when the rays of the sun slowly bring it back to life.
 This curious night coma is, so far as appearances go, identical with the win ter sleep of eastern lizards. The func- | Lions are in abeyance for the time, and l fife is at it's lowest ebb. Tn observing l .hese sleepers I have found them by | over the piles of stones early in | he morning, and have often found a | 'ow of them, limp, cold and apparently | lead, lying in the sun, to watch the | gradual return to life. It came very | those lizards placed on their packs first showing signs of life by luivering of the limbs, which were hen drawn up; then the long tail would | nove and finally the little sleeper would clumsily roll over into an upright position, and as the direct rays of the un struck and warmed it into life it's yes would grow brighter, and sudden Y. as though touched by some magic vand it's head wold be lifted high, the lue brea astplate gleamed in the light, nd, with an air of astonishment and larn. this sleeper awakened would ash over the ground and escape, once lore a living creature, a type of ac- witty, a menace to insect life. Every fight in the Californian winter this ccurs, and the condition can easily be lperinduced by subjecting the ami lals to artificial cold. The bears in 1uthern California are found abroad t all times, while in the northern part the state and in the East they enter ito a complete state of Information, ping into their winter sleep well con- Itioned and fat, evidently living on the