RATS AND MICE 219 



"Sometimes I have found the Dormouse awake on a mild day; 

 I have seen him peep outside his little citadel in the hedgerow-fast- 

 ness, but withdraw inside the home in less time than it takes to tell 

 the story. Such a rude awakening temporarily disturbed him, but, 

 curiosity aroused and satisfied, back he went to the round grass 

 cradle to slumber whilst yet keen Winter was upon the face of 

 the land. 



" How snug and warm the little homestead must be ! How peaceful 

 and secure the slumberer in his grassy home ! Little cares he 

 for the turmoil and strife of a wide and oftentimes unthinking world, 

 for in the hedge I know he often sleeps for six months at a stretch. 



"And who shall say that, as a result of an active and busy life 

 during the Spring, Summer and Autumn, he does not deserve a well- 

 earned repose ? 



"Bright, merry little Dormouse; wee mite, a ball of soft brown 

 hair, we bode you no harm. Stay inside your homestead where 

 nought may disturb you. There, among the naked branches of the 

 hedgerow, ' may you dwell in safety. There, where the hungry 

 Greenfinch comes to appease its frequent hunger; there where the 

 Brown Wren flits hither and thither like a butterfly rather than a 

 bird; there where the Yellow Bunting mounts the topmost twigs and 

 sings his impetuous song so long as the sun casts a shadow on the 

 dial ; there where so many animal and vegetable treasures are hidden 

 until a more favourable season ; there, little slumberer, shall you be 

 left securely until Winter is past and gone and the good Fairy Spring 

 sounds the bugle-call to her wondrous children to rise from their 

 long but necessary sleep." 



The subject of this little sketch, the Dormouse, might be mistaken 

 for a small kind of Squirrel, and I have before now had the animal 

 brought to me as such. It has a long Squirrel-like tail, large ears and 

 eyes^ and short limbs, but, as so often happens among mammals, the 

 teeth at once identify this gay little sprite, the presence of "a single 

 pair of pre-molars in each jaw " and "all the cheek teeth being rooted 

 and having their crowns inter-penetrated by transverse enamel-folds " 

 serving to distinguish it from all the other British members of the 

 order to which it belongs. There are internal differences also, but 

 these need not be detailed. 



Outside Britain, Dormice are found in various other parts of 

 Europe, as well as Africa and some portions of Asia. 



In colour the Common Dormouse is warm tawny on the upper- 



