HYBERNATING ANIMALS WHICH LAY UP A STOCK OF PROVISIONS.
'Fitz kind of hybernation of which we treated in the last Chapter, is of more frequent occurrence than that which we are now to consider. In common with those animals, they obtain an addition to their clothing, while they differ from them in being provident of futurity. They collect with care the superabundant productions of autumn, and dispose of them in such a manner, as to furnish a supply of food when the fruits and flowers are destroyed by the frost. Such may with propriety be termed storing animals, as they all possess the industry so beautifully expressed by Virgil.
Ventunegue hiemis memores (estate laborem. Experittatur, et in medium guresita reponunt.
This class of hybernating animals contains but few species. These are all phytivorous, and, without excep tion, belong to the natural tribe of Glires or Gnawers. All the animals of this tribe do not possess this storing inclination, although it is certainly observable in many of them.
Of all those animals, whose industry in collecting, and wisdom in preserving a winter store, have attracted the notice of mankind, the beaver stands pre-eminently conspi cuous. But, as the habits of that singular animal have been detailed under the article BEAVER, we forbear in this place to reconsider the subject. And, as we rather wish to confine our remarks to British animals, wherever the subject will permit, we select as an example of this kind of hybernation, the common squirrel, (Sciurus vutgaris). This active little animal prepares its winter habitation among the large branches of an old tree. After making choice of the place where the timber is beginning to de cay, and where a hollow may be easily formed, it scoops out with its teeth a suitable magazine. Into this store house, acorns, nuts, and others fruits are industriously con veyed, and carefully concealed. This granary is held sacred until the inclemency of the weather has limited the of its excursions, and consequently diminished its opportunities of obtaining food. It then begins to enjoy the fruits of its industry, and to live contentedly in its ele vated dwelling. All the species of mice seem to possess
the inclination to lay up provisions ; even the house mouse and the rat ; but the field mouse is the most remarkable instance. Says the pious and intelligent Derham," I have in autumn, not without pleasure, observed, not only the great sagacity and diligence of swine, in hunting out the stores of the field mice, but the wonderful precautions also of those little animals, in hiding their food before hand against winter. In the time of acorns falling, I have, by means of the hogs, discovered that the mice had, all over the neighbouring fields, treasured up single acorns in little holes they had scratched, and in which they had carefully covered up the acorn. These the hogs would, day after day, hunt out by their smell." Among birds, reptiles, and fishes, no examples arc known of this kind of hybernation. The bee, among in sects, is an interesting example, but requiring no explana tion. No instances occur among the animals which com pose the inferior classes.
Since all these storing animals arc destined to live on the productions of the vegetable kingdom, we witness the wise provisions of nature in assigning to them such pro pensities. By this faculty, existence is comfortably main tained, under circumstances which would prove fatal with out it. The seeds of many plants are translated by them from the places of their growth, and more extensively dis seminated. But how are we to account for the conduct of those animals, in thus providing for a futurity, who have never suffered from former inexperience, as must be the case with young animals—that in autumn, when the boun ties of nature are scattered so profusely, they should sub ject themselves to much labour, in heaping up a treasure for supplying the deficiencies of a winter, of whose accom panying privations they are ignorant. Part of this indus try may, in those animals which are gregarious, be the result of education ; but in other instances, we must confess our inability to offer any explanation.