The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-11-17
WINTER GOSSIP OF SLEEPING ANIMALS.

there are very few mammals IN Maine
which hibernate, becoming so lost in
sleep as to be oblivious of what is 60
ing on around them. A recent Ban
gor writer says
"Our raccoons and skunks and
bears crawl away to hiding places
and seem to be torpid, though they
awaken and become active as soon as
their apartments are invaded by hui
man foes.
"Twice we have seen bears i1ncov-
cred from under fallen trees during
very cold weather in mid-winter, and
in both cases the animals were awake
and on the defensive as soon as the
choppers could get at them. Rae
coons do not hibernate in the sense of
becoming unconscious. They den up
in holiUw trees ana logs, but let some
one come along and strike forcibly
above their secluded dens, and they
are up and dressed and ready to flee
as quickly as a family is when the
fire alarm is sounded at the front
door. During nearly every winter
thaw, bears, skunks and raccoons
come out and walk about on the snow,
at times going away from their win
ten quarters.
"0ur greedy little friend, the
chipmunk, is not believed to sleep
any more hours in the winter than
in the summer. 1t puts by plenti-
full store of food and performs light
housekeeping in its hole far below
the frost. So far as anyone can learn
the chipmunk dwe1ls alone in its
under ground den. The old notion
that the father and mother chipmunk
took their children into winter quar-
ters and gave them lessons in stealing
grain and gnawing holes in corn bins
is fabrication.
1--WE have talked with scores of
men who have been close observers
of chipmunks for years, and'as yet
we have found none who ever saw
two chipmunks dwelling in the same
compartment. Skunks, however, are
very social in their winter habits.
One winter when a barn in Waldo
county burned down the charred
bodies of eight skunks were taken
from the ashes and rubbish left from
the blaze. Raccoons have small OBJ
iections to receiving sleeping partners
in hollow trees, though bears seem to
be morose and solitary brutes, which
have no liking for their kind.
"But the woodchuck sleeps sound
ly enough to make up for all the
wakeful and half-wakeful creatures.
Boys who have stored tame wood
chucks in barrels in the cellar to pass
the winter have taken the torpid
animals and carried them miles in
their arms without breaking in on
their sleep. A fat woodchuck in
early winter may be brought from its
nest and placed by the side of warm
stove for half an hour without max
ing any apparent change in its con-
duct.
"But when a slumbering wood
chuck is warmed and rubbed until it
is fully awake it is about the most
disagreeable beast living. Though
it has been as tame as a pet kitten
when put away, it will 'snicker''
and gnash its teeth and show many
signs of displeasure if aroused from
its long sleep before it has burned up
its surplus fat by respiration.
"It requires long hunting and
much patience to find a slumbering
bat in mid-winter. The animals are
so small that they can hide in most
any crevice, and their color Is so SUBJ
dued that unless one is looking for
them ne can never find them. The
general impression is that bats hiber-
nate from October until April, as no
one sees them flying about during
the cold months.
'Years ago we found seemingly
torpid bat concealed among a wad Of
hay in the mortice of beam in hay
barn. The season was winter, for
we remember there was snow on the
ground. 1t was cold weather, too,
for we took off thick woolen mitteu
as a cage for holding the bat until
we carried it to the house and in
stalled it as a pet. The reason why
we never tanned and studied the hab-
its of that particular bat was-because
the pestiferous little creature bit US
sharply in the thumb as soon as we
touched its body, and before we were
over our great surprise at this imper-
tinent act the bat had fed from sight.
It may be that bats assume sleep
that leads to Inconsistencies in win
ter, though the one we met assumed
nothing.
NEARLY all reptiles-including
frogs, toads, snakes and turtles-bury
themselves below frost in winter and
remain sluggish and at times torpid
until spring. If a frog is dug from
the mud and placed in spring it will
swim away, though slowly at first.
"The little nevis or salamanders
and the lizards, we are unable to say
concerning their habits. These are
reptiles, though the specimens found
here at the north are small enough to
be classed as insects. We have dug
both salamanders and lizards from
springs in winter and have found
them in full possession of their facul-
ties. We have left nevis out of
doors in water in a tin pail over night
and had them freeze as solid as ice,
though when they thawed out they did
not show any i'll effects from frost bites.
"Frogs and toads can stand freez-
ing and thawing few times, though
the experience seems to be "wear-
ing" as most of them succumb after
repeated trials. Just how snakes
pass the winter we do not know.
! Two or three specimens of the COM
mon striped snake which we have
dug from stone heaps in the winter
appeared to be frozen and stiff,
though a natural repuguance to the