g winter's sleep.

This winter sleep of the squirrel, and some other animals, is something
very strange, which we do not thoroughly understand. With the first
touch of winter's cold, they curl themselves up, and fall into a sleep
which lasts until the return of spring. This sleep, or hibernation as it
is properly called, is a very useful habit for the animals which are
subject to it, because it enables them to live on at a time when their
food is very often scarce. During this sleep their bodies scarcely waste
away at all, and a few good meals, when they wake, soon put them right;
whereas, if they were always running about, they would be almost
incessantly hungry, and would probably die of starvation during the
winter.

Some animals remain torpid throughout the winter, while others wake up
occasionally, and enjoy a day's life every now and then in the midst of
their long sleep. The common squirrel is one of the latter. Whenever
there is a warm, mild day in winter, it wakes up, feeling very hungry,
and turns out of its nest for a run. If it trusted to chance for a meal,
it would have to return to its nest hungry. But during the autumn it has
gathered large quantities of hazel-nuts, acorns, beech-nuts, and
fir-cones, and has stored them away in various holes near its nest.
When, therefore, it has enjoyed one of its winter runs, it visits one of
these store-houses, makes a hearty meal, and then returns to its nest to
sleep for a few more days, or a few more weeks, until another warm day
comes round.

The squirrel selects for his storehouses various holes in the trunk of
the tree near his nest, which are often the deserted nests of some
wood-pecker. Indeed, he is not always content to wait until the
wood-pecker deserts her nest, especially as he relishes the taste of an
egg. A writer in the _Standard_ describes how he saw a wood-pecker
turned out of her house to make room for an impudent squirrel. The
squirrel, descending backwards down a tree-trunk, suddenly found his
hind legs in a hole. Probably he felt something sharp pecking at them,
for he drew them out quickly, and rapidly climbed to a branch
immediately above. A moment later a wood-pecker flew out of the hole.
The squirrel watched her out of sight, and then returned to the nest,
and helped himself to an egg or two, which he carried up to his perch,
and ate.

When these were disposed of, he descended once more to the wood-pecker's
nest and waited for the return