236 BRITISH MAMMALS 



adults until they are nearly a year old. The front paws are 

 a little smaller than the feet, and both are rather mouse-like in 

 shape and appearance. The soles of all four feet are well padded 

 with broad, fleshy prominences like those of so many lemurs, so 

 that they are able to cling, to break the shock of a jump, and to 

 move very silently. The face of the dormouse is abundantly 

 supplied with long vibrissae. 



It is extraordinarily agile in its movements, and suggestive 

 of those African and Asiatic lemurs that take rapid and silent 

 leaps through the air. The dormouse thinks nothing of a jump 

 6 ft. upwards as well as downwards. 



It has five pairs of mammas, and produces generally four 

 young in a litter. These are born blind, but in a few days are 

 able to move out of the nest. It is generally held that the 

 dormouse breeds but once a year, in the spring, though the late 

 Professor Bell gives instances of broods occurring in the autumn. 

 Perhaps this double brood depends somewhat on favourable years 

 or conditions of food supply. The dormouse would seem to be 

 monogamous, but is often gregarious at breeding-time, or when 

 preparing its nests for the winter hibernation. At these times 

 a number of couples may form quite a little colony. The 

 dormouse generally constructs its winter or its breeding nest in 

 the thick foliage and closely set twigs of a high hedge or a 

 nut-bush, not generally much higher than 3 ft. or 4 ft. above 

 the ground. The winter, or hibernating, nest is sometimes 

 actually put together on the ground between withered stems of 

 grass or of short vegetation. The nests may be as much as 

 8 in. in diameter, and are generally constructed of blades of 

 grass, or long stems of leaves, carefully interwoven, and offering 

 no visible aperture. The dormouse very frequently utilises a 

 discarded bird's nest if situated conveniently in a low coppice. 



The dormouse grows extremely fat by the end of October, 

 and about that time curls itself up into its nest and commences 

 its hibernating sleep. Packed into the nest are supplies of hazel- 

 nuts ; and if there is an unusually warm day in December or 

 February, or in any of the winter months, the dormouse awakes, 



