n the day is warm, or the January thaw
comes, I fancy the little frog feels it and stirs in his bed. One
would see the warty toads squatted in the soil two or three feet
below the surface, in the same way. Probably not till April will
the spell which the winter has put upon them be broken. I have
seen a toad go into the ground in late fall. He literally elbows
his way into it, going down backwards.

Beneath rocks or in cavities at the end of some small hole in the
ground, one would see a ball or tangle of garter snakes, or black
snakes, or copperheads--dozens of individual snakes of that
locality entwined in one many-headed mass, conserving in this
united way their animal heat against the cold of winter. One
spring my neighbor in the woods discovered such a winter retreat
of the copperheads, and, visiting the place many times during the
warm April days, he killed about forty snakes, and since that
slaughter, the copperheads have been at a premium in our
neighborhood.

Here and there, near the fences and along the borders of the
wood, these X-ray eyes would see the chipmunk at the end of his
deep burrow with his store of nuts or grains, sleeping fitfully
but not dormant. The frost does not reach him and his stores are
at hand. One which we dug out in late October had nearly four
quarts of weed-seeds and cherry-pits. He will hardly be out
before March, and then, like his big brother rodent the
woodchuck, and other winter sleepers, his fancy will quickly
"turn to thoughts of love."

One would see the woodchuck asleep in his burrow, snugly rolled
up and living on his own fat. All the hibernating animals that
keep up respiration, must have sustenance of some sort--either a
store of food at hand or a store of fat in their own bodies. The
woodchuck, the bear, the coon, the skunk, the 'possum, lay up a
store of fuel in their own bodies, and they come out in the
spring lean and hungry. The squirrels are lean the year through,
and hence must have a store of food in their dens, as does the
chipmunk, or else be more or less active in their search all
winter, as is the case with the red and gray squirrels. The fox
puts on more or less fat in the fall, because he will need it
before spring. His food-supply is very precarious; he may go many
days without a morsel. I have known him to be so hungry that he
would eat frozen apples and corn which he could not digest. The
hare and the rabbit, on the other hand, do not store up fat
a