Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1903 — Winter Sleep of Animals [ARTICLE]

Winter Sleep of Animals

It Is a theory commonly held that animals and insects go to sleep lu winter because it Is too cold to keep awake. A writer who has observed nature to some purpose holds to the less popular theory that the habit of hibernation Is rather to avoid the pangs and penalties of famine, says the London Globe.

From the little bats which huddle In amorphous clusters under belfry tower and barn roof, to the mighty badger who slinks far back Into his subterranean lodging, almost all the hibernating animals are wholly or partly Insectivorous. And when we come to examine the creeping, or winged, fare of these kreophaglsts, who withdraw froth 4 the madding world during winter, we understand how It is that so many animals fall asleep and so many birds fly away from our Barmecide feast. Bees, wasps, ants, earwigs, wood lice, gnats, horseflies, slugs, beetles, larvae, worms nnd snails — all these are seldom visible In winter months; while the famine of Insect life In the fresh water of our ponds Is deductible from the fact that efts creep ashore to wriggle asleep In the cracks of earth and the frog tucks himself to sleep in the bed of his pond. Toads and snakes likewise sleep away the famished months, and we are told that It Is only a minority of animals which keep their eyes open In winter. Bob—Archie has Just bought* a seat on the Stock Exchange. Edith—The dear boy! I shall make him two sofa pUlows far it at ones.—Judge.