The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-10-27

W dSnluSton, L. u, OCT 20 w 9
are going to have hard winter this
year"
You hear a lot OF amateur prophe-
sizes to this effect, and a few to the
contrary. Some base their predic-
tons on the way the squirrels are
piling up nuts and some on the re-
port that muskrats have thick fur.
and some on the fact that ducks
have come south sooner than usual.
The government attaches no sig
niticance to special industry on the
part of squirrels, or to any of these
other things. Nor does it consider
reports of early fight of birds to the
south a true warning that winter
will set in sooner than usual. The
government biologist and meteor
oligist regard these phenomena as
interesting but no more to be relied
upon than the pretty story of the
ground hog and his shadow.
The fact is" says DR.. A. X.
Fisher of the biological survey, I'VE
have no proof that animals are sup
piled in advance with instin ctiye
warnings of storms or cold weather
On the other hand, there is q good
deal of proof that they do not know
in advance about weather condi-
tons. If they did, there would be
fewer catastrophies in the animal
world.
Weather changes often oyertake
birds, for instance, with tragic re-
suits. If birds could sense storms
far ahead we would not hear of
100000 Lapland longspurs being
beaten to the ground in driving
storm in Minnesota. This incident
occurred in the spring when these
birds were fyig north. They were
caught in the gale. After it was
over, ornithologists measured the
area of the frozen lake where the
birds lay dead and then counted the
birds to a square yard. According
to careful estimate, 100000 were
wiped out that day. When birds do
seek shelter in a storm it is gener-
ally because they can no longer
keep up in the air, not because they
sense the storms approach"
Early migration of birds is COM
monty accepted as an infallible sign
that winter may be expected at
once Birds really migrate, Dr..
Fisher says, not because they antIcl-
pate cold, but because the food sup
ply is disappearing.
When they migrate sooner than
usual in the fall it may mean that
winter is setting in and destroying
their chances of getting food, or it
may mean that less Of the food
needed by those particular birds is
available. Or, as a third SUPPOSE
ton, there may be unusually large
fiocks of the birds in a locality and
the food supply is not lasting so
late as usual.
What Makes Fur Grow.
BY the same Specious reasoning,
it is sometimes asserted that ami
in preparation for a severe winter.
in preparation TO "a severe winter.
The facts, so far as science has
studied them, are that animals do
have thicker fur in cold winters.
Animals in very cold climates have
thicker coats than similar species
farther south. This is a well-recog-
nized fact in the fur trade, where
fur from the far north brings much
higher prices than pelts from
warmer ATTITUDES.
The overlooked fact here is that
the warmer coat is furnished by ma
ture after the cold sets in, not be
fore Roughly speaking, the cold
the skin to produce
thicker fur Yet reports of thicker
fur on animals in the early fall are
widely regarded as a sure sign of
heavy weather ahead.
Government scientists have never
made any experiments of changing
animals from one climate to an
other to test their adaptability III
this respect 1t is believed that a
Louisiana muskrat, for example,
might freeze to death if taken to a
cold climate because his skin
would probably not react quickly
enough to cIothe him properly the
first winter. If he survived that
year the next year he would prob
ably adapt himself like the other
animals of the region This is PROB
But it is certain that he
would not grow his thicker fur in
before the cold weather
struck him.
Information is another misinter-
preted animal function. Early hi
bernation is often pointed out as