296 Mammals of Eastern Asia 
race, B. b. wardi, is found at 5500 feet. These are smaller ani- 
mals than those of the B. indica section; the length of the head 
and body is about 8 inches, the tail 7 to 8 inches, the hind foot 
from li/4 to 1% inches. 
SUPERFAMILY GLIROIDEA 
Here belong two distantly related families, the True Dormice 
and the Spiny Dormice. The latter, because of structural rela- 
tionships, includes also the peculiar ''Blind Mouse," Typhlomys. 
The name Gliroidea is based upon the Latin word for Dormouse 
(glis, gliris) ; in fact, the original term for all rodents and rab- 
bits used by Linnaeus, who started binomial terminology, was 
"glires." Although the Dormouse was for Linnaeus the pro- 
totype of all Rodents, it plays but a small role in the modern 
scheme of classification. 
THE DORMICE (FAMILY GLIRID^E) 
My first, and somewhat erroneous, impression of a Dormouse 
was obtained when I read about the mad hatter's tea-party in 
Alice in Wonderland and examined the old wood-cut showing 
the mad hatter and the hare trying to cram the Dormouse into 
the tea-pot. I hardly realized from that picture how much more 
a European Dormouse resembles a tiny Squirrel than a Mouse. 
The Dormouse Family has its headquarters in southeastern 
Europe, Africa, and Asia. It contains a number of genera, only 
one of which occurs in eastern Asia. 
One of the species of Dormice in France is said to live in 
pairs, building a commodious nest in dense shrubbery, and there 
producing 4 or 5 young. The call is a whistle-like sound. The 
animals feed upon fruits and nuts, often damaging orchard 
crops by testing many fruits with their teeth before deciding to 
make a meal of one. A heavy layer of fat is accumulated beneath 
the skin before hibernation begins. 
