The Washington times., 1908-01-23
WINTER NOT TERROR
TO WILD ANIMALS
Perch Will Exist in Frozen Ponds
Frogs in Solid Blocks of Ice.

A hedgehog picked up In the curious
torpid state which we call Information
has been immersed in water for twenty
minutes without being any the worse,
and a alternating bat can remain a
quarter of an hour under water before
death ensues.
Put a alternating dOOrmouse in a
tightly closed glass jar and 1t can exist
there for days so long as the tempera-
turs remains unaltered. For all that
alternating animals are not proof
against intense cold. If the temperature
around them either rises or falls con-
siderably the alternating creature
wakes up, begins to breathe again. and
if the frost becomes very intense,
freezes to death.
An animal that hibernates, like the
hedgehog. the doormouse. the long
tailed field mouse or the squirrel pos
sesses a big advantage over one that
does not. While asleep it needs no food.
and as all these creatures either bury
themselves IN underground burrows or
are rolled up in warmly constructed
nests they need not worry about the
long frosts when most of the other ere
atures suffer bitterly.
The HOOsier wild animal which minds
cold least IS undoubtedly the rabbit In
deed, It Is said that the rabbit Is, Of All
warm blOOded creatures, the most ca
pable of WithStauding very low tenn
peratures. The cruel experiment has
been made OF enclosing a live rabbit
In a solid block Of ice. After being lett
in the ice for twelve hours the rabbit
was liberated and almost at once began
Tie Arctic fox is another creature
which no degree CT cold Inconvenience
1t is one Of the very few Arctic animals
which does not hibernate However. IN
case game may become very scarce IN
winter the provident fox lays up tOl It
self a store Of food in the shape OF lem
mings, ernIues or birds.
You see the young OF the ArcuC seal
Topping happily about on sheets of ice
and snow. II is q curious provision OF
nature that III the Arctic regions, where
bears prey upon young seals, the latter
are covered with SnOW-WRlte HAIR SO as
to render them incOnspiCuOuS. On the
Antarctic ice, where the little creatures
have nothing to fear from CarnivOra,
they ara born with the colors OF their
parents
OF domestic animals. sheep come first
as cold resisters. Sheep have lived Tor
weeks buried In snow Goats and pigs,
take. respectively. second and third
places.
OF birds, thrushes, and blaCkbiTds
seem able to endure cold less well than
the finch tribe, of which the house spar
row IS the cOmmOnest type Ihe war
bleTs OF which the sO-Called hedge
sDarTOw is a representative, are more af-
fected by cold than any other birds At
the same time. cold alone rarely kills
birds. A birds normal temperature IS
five to seven degrees higher than that OF
a man, and its feathers give the most
perfect protection that could well be
imagined
amount OF cold without harm Perch
will live In ponds which are frozen
practically solid in every hard winter.
The whitchsh Of Canada, caught
through holes in the ice. have been
picked up frozen so stiH that they
would break like brittle sticks, yet when
carefully thawed out showed signs OF
life.
The common toad scoops a hole, us
uallv among dead leaves, as a winter
refuge. But the hole is shallow, and IN
low temperature without harm.-EN-
change.