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Show knows the tricks of surviving in the barren lands that stretch from northern Alaska to Labrador. To help him hide from the larger lar-ger animals that hunt him, he wears a white coat during the snowy winters. In the summer, when the ground is clear, his color changes to chestnut, brown or gray. If an enemy does see him, he scampers into his, underground shelter. It is a clever hideaway, says the National Wildlife Federation, Feder-ation, and often saves him from harm. The entrance to the burrow may be dug in an open place, or it may be carved out beneath a log, a bush or some tree roots. When he plunges into the hole, he enters en-ters a small tunnel which is from two to three feet long. At the end of this passageway, he comes to a nest chamber that is four or five inches in diameter. To make 1951 National Wildlife Federation Collared Lemming In the far north, where summers are short and winters bring many an icy blast, there lives, a tiny, fur-bearing animal called the Collared Col-lared Lemming. Though he doesn't does-n't look strong and hardy, he it soft and warm, he lines it with grass and moss. If, by chance, a foe does poke into his main burrow, the Collared Lemming can leave hia nest chamber cham-ber and go into a branch tunnel. It is a foot or more in length. The nest is an especially busy place early in the summer, for that is when most baby Lemmings are born. There are about three to a litter making a family of five that must live in the little home. But the shelter never seems crowded because even the parents are small. When fully grown they are about 6 inches long and weigh 4 ounces. Long before the first snow flies, the young Lemmings are ready to leave the nest and hunt their own meals. Their favorite foods are j grass, rootsand moss all fairly easy to find during the summer. It is harder to get enough to eat in the winter, but the Lemmings Lem-mings still manage to satisfy their hunger. Under the snow they build a network of tunnels on the surface sur-face of the ground. With a thick blanket of white above them, they can leave their burrows and explore ex-plore for bits of plant life. The worst thing that can happen hap-pen 'to them is for a raging wind to blow away the protecting snow When that happens to a lemming colony, some of the little creatures perish in the cold and others are I captured by hungry enemies. ( |