Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-11-25

rived from change or color, or growth peculiar to the season, are attained without any effort on the parts of the creatures themselves. In order to ob- tain food and shelter for the winter, however, some animals are obliged to make active preparation.
 Perhaps the best known example of such preparation Is that of the beav- CTS, which first make a pond by dam- ming stream with trees, brush, stones and mud and then, in the pond thus made, erect stanch huts, whose roofs are we'll above the water, and whose doorways are we'll below it. Here they spend the winter, swimming out under the ice in search of aquatic roots, or the bark of trees and bushes growing near the water, or, when other food fails them. eating the bark of saplings carried to the bottom of the pond and stored away near their huts in the autumn. Unfortunately, few of us ever get chance to sec either these animals or their works, for not only have the beavers been al- most externainated, but those which still survive often spend their winters in holes in the banks of streams.
 We can, however, get some idea of the beavers natural preparation for winter by watching the muskrats. which have somewhat similar habits. The muskrat makes no dam, but chooses for the site of his winter home a pond already in existence. Here he builds hut or lodge on the same general plan as the beavers, but much smaller. The material used in it's con- struction is usually that which is easi- est to obtain-sticls, leaves, moss, grass and the stems of bullrushes, be- ing amongst the materials I have seen used by this animal. As far as l know, mlskrats lay up no food for the winter, but depend entirely upon what they can pick up from day to day. Like the beavers, they are partial to the roots of aquatic plants, and fragments of these are often seen be- meath the ice, where they have fioated from the spot where some rat has been at work. Muskrats also go out into the fields through holes in the ice, to eat any winter apples they may find under the trees, or to glean corn or other grain which may have been left by the farmers.
 The little chief hare or pica of the west is another of our provident wild creatures. This little fellow is appar- ently related to the rabbits on one side and to the rats on the other. Pleas live on the slopes of the noun tains, where in holes and crevices amongst the rocks and boulders they find safe retreats. They are most in- dustrious, and spend much time in gathering mountain plants which they pile into "hay stacks for their use in the winter.
 It would probably be difficult to mention more provident animal than the common chipmunk, which for months now has been carrying into his long, winding, underground tunnel store of nuts, grains and seeds of different kinds, which would probably last him for two winters if there should be famine next year.
 The red and gray squirrels, too, have been busy collecting nuts for sev- eral weeks past, and many are the piles of shellbarks and butternuts hid- den away in hollow trees, old wood chuck burrows, and under prostrate logs in the woods. But these creatures are not nearly so dependent on their winter stores as the chipmunk is, for ! red and gray squirrels are abroad more or less all winter, while the lit tie hackhee sticks to his den from fall 1 until spring,
 ERNEST HAROLD BAyNES