COUNTRY LIFE
A RECENT reference to weather prophecies and their fallibility has brought me various tags from several countries, including Spain, Germany and Austria, the home of the Three Icemen. Germany, so far as I know, is unique in quoting the badger, an animal that few of us ever see or ever hear of, at least in eastern England. The forecast runs:
Sieht der Dachs auf Lichtmess seinen Schatten, so kriecht er auf vier Wochen in seinen Bau zuruck.
The badger that so retired on February 2nd of this year would have missed much delightful weather. The phrase suggests a nice point in natural history which does not seem to be wholly solved even in Mr. Neal's latest most charming and scientific book, The Badger. How far, if at all, does he hibernate ? The same question may be put in reference to the squirrels, both brown and grey ; and indeed to some mice. The dormouse, of course, like the hedgehog, is a thorough-going hibernator, but others of the race reduce their food and activity at the orders of cold weather to a degree that has not been at all thoroughly studied. Indeed, the literature of the smaller mammals is surprisingly sparse and insufficient.
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