SOME OBSERVATIONS ON BEITISH MICE. 353 



While in this strange abnormal condition, he may be im- 

 mersed in water for two hours, and yet take no harm, or he 

 may be placed in a jar of carbonic acid gas and not be suffo- 

 cated. In this state he can exist for weeks together without 

 taking any food, depending only upon the deposit of fat 

 which lies beneath the skin. In mild weather he wakes, and 

 eats some of his store of nuts, but he always relapses into 

 slumber upon any lowering of the temperature. 



I have kept a pair of these mice four years in great con- 

 tentment. In the winter they were usually kept in a warm 

 room, and therefore did not sleep very profoundly ; and even 

 if kept in a cold room for a night, and showing all the signs 

 of hibernation in the morning, they could always be waked 

 by the heat of the hand in five or ten minutes. 



By the end of four years, my dormice began to show traces 

 of old age ; their movements lost their former briskness, and 

 their paws became wrinkled like the hands of an old man, 

 until first one and then the other of the aged pair paid the 

 debt to nature, and peacefully expired. 



The short -tailed field-mouse (arvicola agresfis). This 

 animal, more properly called the short-tailed held-vole, as 

 the voles must not be confounded with the true Murinse, has 

 a strong relationship with the beaver, and resembles that 

 animal in colour of fur, shape of skull, general contour, and 

 to a certain extent in its water-frequenting habits. The ears 

 are deeply sunk in the thick fur, the head is blunt and 

 rounded, and offers a striking contra^st to the sharp features 

 of the common house-mouse. Its name of meadow-mouse indi- 

 cates its place of abode ; it is chiefly to be met with in hay- 

 fields, and if the fields are in the neighbourhood of water, 

 or are themselves swampy, the mice are so much the better 

 satisfied. They have also been found inhabiting the deserted 

 nest of a coot, which they shared with some water-shrews. 



