The suburban citizen., 1902-07-19
ANIMALS SUMMER GARB
WHEN FURREp AND FEATHERED D
CREATURES CHANGE ATTIRE.

Something Cooler.
1t seems almost a pity that 1t did not
occur to Herr Teufelsdrockh, when he
enriched the empire of thought by his
famous philosophy of Clothes to
add q few remarks on the summer
garb Of animals; for in the reasons
which lead so many furTed and feath-
cred creatures to change their attire
once at least in every year the learned
professor might have found ample ma.
terial for deep lnusing.
Many Of these animals. Of course
merely moult, throwing off the old coat
for no other purpose than to put on a
new one. In some eases they do it by
degrees, as every one knows who Las
enjoyed ride in a dog cart behind a
white pony. In others the change is
more rapid. Witness the annual peel
ing of sheep which are never shorn
But no matter how long the toilet may
last in such cases, the fashion never
varies.
Other creatures dress in accordance
with their age. They seem TO hold
strongly that costumes suited to juve-
niles are out of place in the case OF
adults. So lion cubs are brindled like
tabby cats, and cygnets are clothed in
smcky-gray instead of in white. Ger
tain sea birds are even more particu-
lar. for their young are called upon to
wear four successive changes of raj
ment. equally different from one an
other and from the plumage which de-
notes maturity. This last plan must
be a great convenience to parents who
find 1t difficult to remember the ages of
their offspring. They have only to
glance at the feathers of the little ones
in order to know.
Far more frequently, however, the
summer change of costume depends
upon climate. The thick wraps of win
ter have to give way to something
cooler and lighter; SO the ermine, to-
wards the middle Of spring, is meta
morphosed into a stoat, and remains a
stoat until the latter part OF autumn,
1t is hard to realize that the costly
fur which marks the judicial dignity,
which peers Of high degree are proud to
wear has been stripped from an animal
included by every gamekeeper In his list
of ''vermin." Yet such is in truth the
case. In northern countries, where the
temperature for months together is n
minus quantity, they become yellow in
autumn and perfectly white a few
weeks later, the muzzle and tip of the
tail alone excepted, while in spring
and early summer they pass again
through yellow back into reddish
brown.
Arctic foxes follow their example
partly, perhaps, for the sake Of
warmth, dark clothes being better con-
ductors of heat than light ones Of the
same thickness and quality. In winter
they are as white as the driven snow
itself, but in summer they become
gray, or brown, or smoky blue, accord
ing to their individual idosyncrasies.
Nansen tells us in hiS "FalThest North"
that the Arctic foxes were at times the
his camp by night and carrying off
every particle of food which they could
find, but repeatedly stealing his ther-
mcmeters. The reason for this larcen-
GUS behavior baffied the great ex-
! plorer altogether; hs could not under
stand what foxes could possibly want
with scientific instruments. But their
annual change OF attire may explain
! it. No doubt the animals in question
/ are keenly interested in the variations
of temperature, and anxious above all
things to know when it is time to think
about putting on their summer clcth-
ing; and, Of course, a thermometer
would be q guide.
Among the birds the most notable
change Of plumage for climatic rea-
sons is that Of the ptarmigan. No one
looking for the first time upon a
| ptarmigan in its summer costume, side
by side with another in its winter
dress, would dream that the two birds
were identical One is ashy gray,
mottled and marbled with chestnut
and black, the other is perfectly white.
The reason is that ptarmigans in sum-
mor have to crouch among rocks which
! are covered with MOSES and lichens,
while in winter they sit upon snow,
and nature dresses them 10 suit their
surroundings. The resemblance in
each case is exact. You might stare
( straight at a ptarmigan in summer
from a dozen yards away and be ut.
terly unable to distinguish it from the
rocks, while in winter you would be
equally unable to discern it upon the
snow. And at the same time the bird
has the satisfaction of being clothed
! in accordance with the thermometer
The black headed gull, too, Is black
/ headed only in summer. All through
the rest of the year its head and neck
are as white as the rest of its body.
The change takes place just about the
time tho birds desert the seashore for
the great inland marshes in which they
breed; and the odd thing is that no sort
of moult is involved. The feathers
slowly darken until they become al
most black, and black they remain till
the summer Is over; then the dark hue
4 III a.