safe in its retreat, and, like the slug, fasts |ing the hand. Similarly, though a thick and sleeps throughout the entire winter. coating of ice be on the surface, the water Many insects are hibernators. Putting below may be at a comparatively mild aside those which pass the winter in one temperature. If any of my readers have of the preliminary forms of egg, larva, or ever bathed in winter time, they will reinactive pupa, and therefore can scarcely member that the water itself was always be ranked among insects, there are many warmer than the external air, especially which retire to some hiding-place at the if any wind were blowing, and that comend of autumn and do not make their ap-ing into the air required even more courpearance again until the spring. The age than going into the water. great ground-beetles mostly seek a refuge Now let us turn to the creatures which below the surface of the earth, between pass the winter in an active state, and the bark and the wood of trees, or under which, therefore, not only require food, the moss. So do the rove-beetles, many but need even more than in the summer of the sunshiners, and others, while many time, the warmth of their bodies being no. a lady-bird contrives to remain unharmed more supplemented by external heat, and throughout the winter. Whether or not requiring a larger supply of fuel to mainthe cockchafers, rose-beetles, and stag-tain the internal fire, for the warmth of a beetles hibernate I cannot say, but I have living creature, be it more or less, is, innever succeeded in discovering either of deed, a fire, burning slowly but as veritathese creatures alive in the depth of win-bly as any fire that gives warmth to our ter, while those which I have already mentioned may be found in plenty by anyone who knows where to look for them.

Perhaps the hibernating insects which are most frequently found are the wasps and hornets, which pass the time of their inaction to some purpose. None but the females survive the year. At the end of autumn they have found their mates, and immediately becoming widows, retire to some obscure spot, leaving not only their husbands, but their companions and nurselings, to perish from cold and want of food. They themselves have eaten enough to keep up their lives during the period of sleep; and at the beginning of the next spring they issue from their places of concealment, ready and anxious to found a new colony of their own. Thus, then, we see how provision is made for the subsistence of beings who cannot obtain food in the winter time and cannot leave the country. The winter to them is a blank, its frosts and storms are unknown, and the nourishment stored within them is sufficient for their subsistence during the months of sleep.

chambers or energy to our steam-engines.

Unless the snow lies very deep, the hare and rabbit can manage to find subsistence, the grass and other perennial herbage affording them a sufficient supply of food. But when the snow lies thickly on the ground, and the grass is hidden beneath it, both hares and rabbits are sorely tried, and are obliged to abandon their ordinary food. They then make their way through the snow towards the nearest copse, and with their chisel-like teeth cut away the bark of the trees. The youngest trees are the first victims; but if the snow should lie for any length of time, scarcely a tree will escape, and it is really wonderful to see the height which animals so small can reach by standing on their hind legs. Of course, the hare fares better than the rabbit, for it is a larger animal, has longer hind legs, can reach higher when standing on them, and so when the rabbit has stripped the tree of bark as high as it can reach, the hare is still able to gnaw away the bark which was too high for the rabbit.

The tracks which these animals make in the snow are very peculiar, and are so Those insects which inhabit the water conspicuous that they enable poachers to are much less affected by the cold than work great havoc among the hares by those of the land. Even in the depth of tracking them to their forms. It is astonwinter, if the ice which covers the surface ishing how different are the tracks of an of a pond be broken, and the net passed animal which has passed through rather rapidly through the water, some insects deep snow to those of the same animal are sure to be found in it, all quite active when it has merely traversed a soft soil. and lively, though the insects of the land They are always much larger than the size have disappeared for weeks. Water is a of the creature seems to warrant, the size very bad conductor of heat. Most of us being caused by the fact that snow adheres have seen, or at least read, of the well- to the limbs, is drawn at every step out of known experiment of placing the hand at the hole made by the foot, and is then the bottom of a vessel of water, and mak-shaken off before the animal makes aning the surface water boil without affect- other step. Few persons would recognize

the snow-track of a cat. If obliged to traverse the snow, pussy gathers her forefeet together, and proceeds with a series of short jumps, each jump clearing about a yard.

The tracks thus made are wonderfully like those of a man, and I have no doubt are often mistaken for them. Some years ago there was a wonderful disturbance in a country village. It was winter, the snow was deep, and at daybreak were seen the footprints as of a giant, striding over the smooth, white surface. The country people, who are always afraid of anything which they do not understand, were horribly frightened at these tracks, and the rumour got about that they were made by some diabolical being prowling about in the night after its prey. Night after night fresh tracks appeared, and at last the terror of the people was raised to its utmost pitch by the fact that one night the mysterious being had not only walked over level ground, but had passed, with its giant strides, up one side of a house-roof, down the other, and so to the snow on the other side. At last the mystery was solved; the tracks were that of a racoon which had escaped from captivity, and, after the manner of its kind, was enjoying itself by nocturnal promenades in the snow.

As this is a wintry article, and we are on the subject of snow, I may briefly mention an effective mode of making a path through snow with very little trouble and in very little time. Take a couple of planks. of some seven or eight feet in length, set them on edge, and place them at an acute angle with each other, like the letter V. Nail a few pieces of wood across so as to keep them in position, and there is the "snow-plough." If a couple of handles be fastened to it, a man can easily push it along the ground, and, as it passes along, it throws off the snow on either side, and makes a clear path without quiring the aid of hoes and brooms.

that will escape the eye of the thrush, which can peep into crannies that the eye of man could not penetrate. And, as snails mostly congregate together in their winter homes, the bird is sure of a good meal when once he comes upon a hibernating snail.

The value of the thrush in snail-hunting can scarcely be appreciated, unless we know the ingenious way in which these molluscs conceal themselves. Though the snail cannot, like the slug, burrow under ground, it nevertheless makes use of the earth in constructing its winter's habitation. It seeks some sheltered spot, especially favouring such places where there is long moss, or where dead leaves have fallen and congregated. Having settled itself, the snail protrudes its body from the shell, pours out of the foot a large quantity of slime, to which the loose earth, leaves, &c., adhere. The slime rapidly hardens, and in a few minutes forms a tolerably firm layer, which is thrown on one side and forms part of the wall of the intended habitation. Layer after layer is thus made, and in a short time the snail is enclosed in a habitation which is strong. warm, and so exactly resembles the surrounding objects that scarcely any eye except that of a hungry thrush could detect it.

Then come the titmice, which are inordinate consumers of animal food. In winter-time they sometimes seem to lose all sense of fear in their craving after such nourishment. They have been known to take pieces of suet from butchers' shop, to steal meat from the dogs' plate, to nibble at the candle in a stable lantern, and even to eat the cocoanut oil used for lubricating the wheels of railway carriages, apparently disregarding the fact that the oil is vegetable and not animal. Urged by this longing after animal food, the titmice re-search the trees with the greatest minuteness, prying into the smallest crevice in the bark, and eating not only the insects that have hidden themselves there, but even their eggs. It is specially serviceable in devouring the eggs of the well-known Vapourer moth, which often exists in such numbers that it inflicts great damage on trees, and, unless subjected to such checks as are given by the titmice and one or two other birds with similar habits, would often destroy them entirely. So is the hunger of the bird made useful in preserv ing the food of man.

For many of the birds there is sufficient winter food in the various berries, especially those of the ivy and mountain ash. But there are some birds that need animal food of some kind during the winter, though they care little about it in summer. Chief among them is the song-thrush, a bird whose song seems more redolent of happiness than that of any other bird except the skylark. Deprived of its ordinary food, the thrush betakes itself to the task of snail-hunting, and a most keen hunter it is. If the winter be very severe, and the thrush in consequence very hungry, the snail must indeed be cleverly concealed

These, then, are the three ways in which provision is made for winter fare. Those creatures which are unable to endure our

winter, but are able to fly, take to wing | As in tempestuous nights the Northern seas
and migrate to other lands, leaving more Within their caverned cliffs reverberate.
food for the permanent denizens of the
country. Those which cannot migrate and
cannot find food in winter pass that time
in sleep, so that they are also taken out of
the category of food consumers. Lastly,
those which are hardy enough to bear the
winter of England, but are deprived of
their ordinary food, obtain their subsistence
by change of diet, and by so doing confer
benefits on man, which, if they were better
understood, would be better appreciated,
and, we will hope, better recompensed.

This touched her: "I have marked of yore,”
she said,

From Blackwood's Magazine.
SIR TRAY: AN ARTHURIAN IDYL.

THE widowed Dame of Hubbard's ancient line
Turned to her cupboard, cornered anglewise
Betwixt this wall and that, in quest of aught
To satisfy the craving of Sir Tray,
Prick-eared companion of her solitude,
Red-spotted, dirty-white, and bare of rib,
Who followed at her high and pattering heels,
Prayer in his eye, prayer in his slinking gait,
Prayer in his pendulous pulsating tail.
Wide on its creaking jaws revolved the door,
The cupboard yawned, deep-throated, thinly set
For teeth, with bottles, ancient canisters,
And plates of various pattern, blue or white;
Deep in the void she thrust her hooked nose
Peering near-sighted for the wished-for bone,
Whiles her short robe of samite, tilted high,
The thrifty darnings of her hose revealed; ·
The pointed feature travelled o'er the delf
Greasing its tip, but bone or bread found none.
Wherefore Sir Tray abode still dinnerless,
Licking his paws beneath the spinning-wheel,
And meditating much on savoury meats.

Meanwhile the Dame in high-backed chair re-
posed

Revolving many memories, for she gazed
Down from her lattice on the self-same path
Whereby Sir Lancelot 'mid the reapers rode
When Arthur held his court in Camelot,
And she was called the Lady of Shalott;
And, later, where Sir Hubbard, meekest knight
Of all the Table Round, was wont to pass,
And to her casement glint the glance of love.
(For all the tale of how she floated dead
Between the city walls, and how the Court
Gazed on her corpse, was of illusion framed,
And shadows raised by Merlin's magic art,
Ere Vivien shut him up within the oak.)
There stood the wheel whereat she spun her
thread;

But of the magic mirror nought remained
Save one small fragment on the mantelpiece,
Reflecting her changed features night and morn.

But now the inward yearnings of Sir Tray
Grew pressing, and in hollow rumblings spake,

"When on my palfrey I have paced along
The streets of Camelot, while many a knight
Ranged at my rein and thronged upon my steps,
Wending in pride towards the tournament,
A wight who many kinds of bread purveyed
Muffins, and crumpets, matutinal rolls,
And buns which, buttered, soothe at evensong;
To him I'll hie me ere my purpose cool,
And swift returning, bear a loaf with me,
And (for my teeth be tender grown, and like
Celestial visits, few and far between)
The crust shall be for Tray, the crumb for me."
This spake she; from their peg reached straight-
way down

Her cloak of sanguine hue, and pointed hat
From the flat brim upreared like pyramid
On sands Egyptian where the Pharaohs sleep,
Her ebon-handled staff (sole palfrey now)
Grasped firmly, and so issued swiftly forth;
Yet ere she closed the latch her cat Elaine,
The lily kitten reared at Astolat,

Slipt through and mewing passed to greet Sir
Tray.

seized

And drew the hinder leg: the carcase moved
All over wooden like a piece of wood -
"Dead?" said the Dame, while louder wailed
Elaine;

"I see," she said, "thy fasts were all too long,
Thy commons all too short, which shortened thus
Thy days, tho' thou mightst still have cheered
mine age

Had I but timelier to the city wonned.
Thither I must again, and that right soon,
For now 'tis meet we lap thee in a shroud,
And lay thee in the vault by Astolat,
Where faithful Tray shall by Sir Hubbard lie.'

Wood, hammer, nails, ye build a house for | In dry ravine down mother Ida's side,

scent a throng of memories was awakened which stirred him to a strange enthusiasm ; and the young hound had found "the thing that he was born to do!" We are almost tempted to believe that he has, literally, a memory of the long pursuits of his ancestors of habits which, in some marvellous, way, have accumulated from generation to generation! The scion of a noble house, like Kubla Kahn, he

heard from far

less others never beholds her own young; but, after having laid her eggs, she deposits a store of food such as they will require, of a peculiar kind which she has never tasted since the larva-period in her own life, and dies. In the construction of the cell, too, there is marvellous forethought shown. It is bored with Herculean labour into wood, and the eggs are deposited, one after the other, in closelysealed apartments, each with a ration of food. Her wisdom is not balked, even by the necessity that the first-laid eggs, at the bottom of the long tube, must hatch out their larvæ before the others; for she provides a back-door for their exit at that end. The common theory is, that instinct The boy-hunter, who had been hoarding apparently so wise and far-seeing is his pence so long in order to become the a blind, mechanical impulse, implanted at owner of this hound of aristocratic linethe creation of the animal races for the age, was overjoyed at the proof of pure preservation of life; and, viewing them in blood; but for my self-a frequenter of the wild state, the answer seems adequate. many streams and woods, unarmed with But here at my side is a little quadru- destructive accoutrements, who would ped who sets the question afloat again. fain "name all the birds without a gun" It is a young fox-hound of pedigree as I watched the interesting trial with aristocratic as that

Which stamps the caste of Vere de Vere. His utter inability, with all his fleetness and intelligence, to supply himself with an honest meal, attests this, as well as his peculiar form, which shows his long descent under domestication as clearly as the infantile feet of a Chinese lady prove her rank. His ancestors for countless generations have been bred to the pursuit of a single species of game for the sport of their owners. But he had never associated with others of his kind, nor had he ever set nose upon a fox-trail, until the past season, when he was taken out for the chivalric rites of initiation, one day, to a spot where a fox had been known to recently pass.

Ancestral voices prophesying war— war upon the fox-race, the only species which his hereditary propensities prompt him to pursue.

quite other motives. The hunter's passion must be early outlived if one would follow the chase worthy of wood and field. Wishing the fox, therefore, the safety his wise forethought always deserves, there appeared matter for much curious reflection in the behaviour of the young hound.

Here was the manifestation of something not to be distinguished from instinct, but directed to a purpose utterly alien from any use. When the fox is caught, the hound will starve rather than eat a morsel of his flesh. The propensity is in his very nature; but we are forced to acknowledge that it could not have been an original planting of the Creator in the species. It is rather a transplanting, or grafting of his ingenious owner, who - by long patience with a wild crab-apple stock, as it were, by culture and pruning of every shoot except in a particular direction succeeds, at last, in making an idiosyncrasy a permanent trait. But it is only through very many generations that much is accomplished. Culture is a weak force compared with Selection - that watchword of Darwin.

In crossing the fields, the puppy seems stirred by some new sensations. His pointed nose is kept continually upon the ground, following a zigzag course of involved windings past computation. There are strange scents-trails of squirrel and field-mouse never found near the farmhouse, and of shy birds whose wing never circles about the chimney and roof-tree. Out of an acre of puppies the trader But suddenly, without visible cause, the chooses one, which has just the faintest little fellow becomes frantic over some predilection for putting his nose to the wonderful discovery he has made among ground upon some trail, and drowns the the dry leaves. He howls and springs remainder. Of that one's progeny there about as if suddenly smitten with hydro- is, perhaps, one found with the slightest phobia; and forthwith shoots off upon the fox-trail, to the music of his now first attempts at baying, which makes the woods ring with echoes! At the magic of that

shade deeper impression of the trait he is striving for. This selection is kept up for a great many generations; and through its means the breeder accomplishes wonders.