Jumping-mouse 003 



the lower extremity of the horse-radish and other perpendicular 

 roots. Does it use these as a measure of the distance to which 

 it shall go in the earth to avoid the influence of the frost ? 



"I have said that the Dipus americanus becomes torpid 

 in the neighbourhood of this city. But this, I believe, is not 

 always the case. During the winter season, this little animal 

 and another species, which I call Dipus mellivorus, take pos- 

 session of the hives of bees, in which they form for themselves a 

 warm and comfortable habitation, having ingeniously scooped 

 away some wax. The materials of its nest are fine dry grass, 

 down of feathers, and old rags. It lives upon the honey, and 

 seems to grow very fat upon it. I believe two individuals, a 

 male and a female, commonly inhabit one hive. They some- 

 times devour the greater part of the honey of the hive. 



"The circumstance just mentioned is not altogether un- 

 interesting. It plainly proves what I have, long since, asserted, 

 that the torpid state of animals is altogether 'an accidental 

 circumstance,' and by no means constitutes a specific char- 

 acter. The same species becomes torpid in one country and 

 not in another. Nay, difi^erent individuals of the same species 

 become torpid, or continue awake, in the same neighbourhood, 

 and even on the same farm." 



We may also infer from these observations that, while 

 torpor is more or less controlled by temperature, the habit of 

 torpidity, like the changing pelage of the White-hare, is so 

 deeply engrained constitutionally that there is a strong tendency 

 to torpify at a given time without regard to the original cause. 



We may consider it settled, then, that in southern Canada 

 the Jumping-mouse goes into its winter quarters late in 

 September when the nights become too cool for pleasant 

 rambling. Ordinarily it continues there till springtime, but, 

 like the Chipmunk, it is quite ready to respond at any time to 

 any spell of unusually fine, unseasonable weather, even in the 

 depths of winter, and it is probably for these arousing times, 

 as much as for the springtime famine, that it lays up its abun- 

 dant stores of food. 



