SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS 237 



eats a little food, and resumes its sleep, which may last until 

 it emerges in April for its active summer life. Breeding 

 generally takes place in April, and the young are born in 

 May. 



The food of the dormouse consists, during the late summer 

 and autumn, of hazel-nuts and acorns. Earlier in the summer it 

 eats corn and any other kind of grain, and the seeds of a good 

 many plants, together with leaf and flower buds, many small 

 grubs, caterpillars, weevils, and other insects, and the eggs of 

 small birds, besides such wild fruits as it can obtain. Though 

 almost the shyest of British Rodents, and never liking to force 

 itself on man's attention as does the squirrel, it is nevertheless 

 the most easily tamed of all of them, and makes such a 

 charming and cleanly pet that one wonders not to see it more 

 often kept in captivity. 



The common dormouse is found fairly abundantly in the 

 south and centre of England, and in the south of Wales. Its 

 distribution in the north of England is apparently confined to 

 the wooded parts of Western Lancashire and Cheshire. It has 

 never been recorded from Scotland, though it may be found 

 here and there in the Lowlands, and it is entirely absent from 

 Ireland. Outside the British Islands its range extends over the 

 greater part of Central Europe, reaching as far north as the south 

 of Sweden and as far south as Northern Italy. Eastwards its range 

 stretches into the western districts of Russia, but it does not 

 appear to be an inhabitant of any part of Asia. In seeking for 

 information about its distribution, care must be taken not to 

 confuse it with allied forms belonging to the genus Myoxus^ the 

 larger and handsomer dormouse of Southern and Central Europe, 

 which, however, never seems to have reached England in its 

 distribution. This dormouse of the genus Myoxus can be traced 

 back geologically to the Eocene period ! One of these species 

 of extinct dormouse developed in the island of Malta into a very 

 large size, comparatively, becoming bigger than a guinea-pig. 

 This giant dormouse, curiously enough, shared the island of Malta 

 in the Pleistocene period with elephants and hippopotamuses 



