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ОглавлениеGETTING READY FOR THE WINTER
“The chill rain is falling, the nipped worm is crawling,
The rivers are swelling, the thunder is knelling,
For the year;
The blithe swallows are flown, and the lizards each gone
To his dwelling.”
If somebody asked you in November where the butterflies, bees, and wasps were gone, where the toads and frogs had disappeared to, and what had happened to the hedgehogs, squirrels, snakes, and bats, I wonder what you would say.
If you are a town dweller, you have not perhaps noticed that animal life is very different in winter from what it is in the summer. You may answer, “Oh, the cold weather has killed them all, perhaps.”
If you live in the country, you will know the right answer, for you will have been able to peep and watch for yourself, and perhaps have spied out where some of the animals go.
Many die, of course, especially the young ones born at the end of the summer. But most of them go to sleep in some dark hole or corner, and wait there without food, and sometimes without breathing, until warm days come again. This winter sleep we call “hibernation.” It is more than an ordinary sleep, for it is much longer, and the animal becomes very cold: it is really more dead than alive. The marvel is that it ever wakes again!
Why do so many animals and insects sleep through the winter? The cold weather is one reason, for the temperature of many animals varies with the weather, and if it is terribly cold, the animal’s temperature falls so low that it has not the energy to move about and look for food. It can only fall asleep. Another reason is that the food of many animals cannot be found in the winter months. Flies are not about, beetles have disappeared, slugs have gone. So those who feed on them must disappear, too, until food comes back again in the spring-time.
Those whose food is made up of nuts or grain, which can be stored, do not hibernate all the winter through. They take long naps, and wake up on a sunny warm morning, maybe in December or January, and have a good feed. Then they go off to sleep again directly it becomes cold. You can think of one animal that does this—the squirrel.
Where Do They Go?
I think you would like to know where the animals and insects hide themselves for the winter. The country looks bare and deserted then, with only a robin or two perking and pirouetting in a bush near by, and maybe a rabbit running up the far-away hillside. But all around you, in the bottom of ditches, in hollow trees, in musty barns, beneath wood-stacks, and at the bottom of ponds, hundreds and thousands of little sleeping creatures lie hidden—all waiting for the magic of the first really warm spring day to bring them to active life again.
Let us take the little things first. Where have the butterflies gone? Well, many die—but a great number find a warm corner in barns, or under thick ivy leaves. I once discovered a whole bunch of tortoiseshell and peacock butterflies cuddled up in a corner together. And once, for three winters, when I lived at an old farm-house, I had the same kinds of butterflies in my bedroom, huddled in a cracked corner where wall and ceiling met. In one corner by itself was a lovely yellow brimstone butterfly. Imagine what happened when the warm days came! My bedroom was like the butterfly house at the Zoo!
Bees hibernate in their hives, and as their own honey has been taken, the bee-keeper leaves them a treacly mess on which to feed. You may find big queen wasps under ivy leaves, or lodged in a crevice between stalk and wall. And you will find also, in the ivy, a number of other interesting hibernating insects, if you care to look. The big humble-bee goes down into the earth and sleeps safely there. Caterpillars turn into cocoons, and sleep the winter through in wall cracks, or in the bark of trees. Others can be found under wood piles, stones, fallen trees, and dead leaves, together with ants, beetles, and other small creatures. Snails creep under a stone, and close up their door with a horny plate, leaving just room enough to breathe.
Animal Hiding-places
I have had for pets, at various times, hedgehogs, tortoises, and a toad. At least, the toad was perhaps too independent to be called a pet. He did my garden the honour of living in it, and that was all. In winter time all disappeared.
The hedgehog went in November, having prepared himself a nice little cubby-hole in a bank. He carried leaves and moss to it in his mouth, and so lined it comfortably. Then he went to sleep, for he knew that the insects which formed his food—beetles, and so on—could not be got. But on extra warm nights he woke up and prowled round a little. It is said that hedgehogs snore loudly when sleeping, but they must sleep too soundly for that when hibernating, for certainly I never heard a sound from my little hedgehog in the winter.
The tortoise buried himself in the earth, beneath a bush. He worked very slowly, and looked most ridiculous. He must have been very wet during his sleep, for he had chosen a badly drained hiding-place, which became more mud than earth in the rainy winter days that followed.
The toad didn’t tell me where he hid, but I think it must have been under one of the big stones by the brook-side, for that was where I accidentally found one once in December.
Frogs, too, like damp places in which to sleep the winter away. At the bottom of a pond, all among the mud and slime, is a favourite bed of theirs, or perhaps in a damp hole near by. They come out again in February or March, and so do toads.
One of the most interesting winter sleepers is the squirrel, who hoards up nuts for a warm day; but you will hear all about him in a later Nature story, so I won’t say any more just now.
Another little fellow who stores up a treasure-hoard is the quaint dormouse. He becomes very fat and plump just before hibernating, and, indeed, could quite well last all the winter through without eating anything if necessary. However, on a warm day, he comes out and has a feed of nuts. He sleeps very, very soundly, without breathing, and if found when hibernating, is absolutely cold. It is astonishing that he ever becomes warm and active again. He hides in October, deep underground, among roots, perhaps choosing a place where he has a blanket of moss above him.
Another creature which becomes fat before hibernating is the bat. This queer animal chooses a dark barn or old shed, and hangs itself upside-down for the winter. A warm day will wake it, and send it fluttering round the barn.
The little harvest mouse stores up grain for itself in its burrow, and if it should wake up, it has a good nibble before it sleeps again.
The big badger makes quite a lot of preparations. He gets ready a specially deep room for himself and his family, and makes it soft and comfortable with fallen leaves. Then he blocks up all passages to keep out the cold, or any unwelcome visitors, and he and his family settle down for a long sleep, until a warm day or night tempts them out to see what can be picked up in the way of food.
Snakes, Newts, and Fish
These animals sleep two or three or more together, so that they may get as much warmth as possible. The grass snake retires to a safe place beneath the roots of trees. I was once shown several twined together under a pile of brushwood. They looked as if they would surely never be able to undo all the knots into which they had tied themselves! Sometimes they sleep in hollow trees. The adders, too, like piles of wood, and are also often found under the dry moss among heather slopes. If they can find an old bird’s-nest, such as a partridge’s, on the ground, they will sometimes coil round in that.
Newts leave the ponds in autumn, and go to the dry land. Here they seek a nice damp hole in a ditch, twist themselves into a thick ball, and go to sleep. Young newts sometimes stay in the water and get frozen in the ice. They can be seen “in cold storage” as it were, and the amazing thing is that they come out alive and kicking after that!
Fish are sometimes frozen in the ice, too, but most of them go down to the mud at the bottom of the pond, and stay there until spring.
Other Winter Changes
What about the animals which do not sleep through the winter—the rabbits, hares, weasels, and stoats—the dogs, cats, horses, and sheep? Do they prepare for the cold in any way? Yes, they do. They grow nice thick coats.
The sheep have a lovely thick coat of wool, the horses are more warmly clad than usual, and both dogs and cats grow more hair to keep out the cold. Some horses, like sheep, have to have their coat clipped in the spring-time, in order to relieve them of its warmth when hot days come.
Rabbits and hares grow thicker coats, and weasels and stoats sometimes grow a completely white one, to match the snow, and to prevent their victims from seeing them. They do this regularly in parts of the country which have a great deal of snow, such as hilly districts, and districts far north, but in the south, where it is warmer, they keep the same coat of red-brown. Sometimes they partly change it, and then they are a mixture of brown and white. Even when they turn entirely white, there is always one bit of them that is deep black, and that is the tip of their tail.
Now I think I have told you about the winter habits of most of the creatures you know. You can read a lot more about them in books, but a far better way is to find out for yourself. If you go out, say, for one hour, and look under stones, beneath piles of wood, in the ivy, and anywhere else you can think of, and then put down in a notebook the names of all the creatures you find, you will really be astonished at the number—twenty, thirty, fifty, maybe more.
QUESTIONS TO ANSWER AND THINGS TO DO
(1)
What do we mean when we say that an animal hibernates?
(2)
Put down the names of two hibernating creatures.
(3)
Where do frogs hide in the winter-time?
(4)
Why does the dormouse become so fat in the autumn?
(5)
What do the snakes do in the winter?
(6)
Do horses or sheep prepare for the cold weather?
(7)
Why do northern weasels and stoats turn white in the winter?
(8)
Next time you are out walking, look (1) under a big stone, (2) in the ivy, (3) in a wood-pile, and see what you can find.
