368 MUSCARDINID/ZE—MUSCARDINUS 
tory, and the torpid mice may also be found in bird-boxes, and 
in deserted nests of birds ;' Mr F. W. Frohawk knew of one in 
mid-winter placed in an exposed alder bush. No doubt such 
rashness or remissness in providing for hibernation is severely 
punished in frosty weather. 
Hibernation is profound. The animal ceases to breathe,” 
and becomes so cold and rigid that it can be rolled like a ball 
across a table.’ A mild day may call it back into transient 
life,t and it will then seize the opportunity to enjoy a meal’ 
before again relapsing into slumber. But, with interruptions, 
its sleep lasts® until some day in April. By the latter 
month it has lost much of its fat, and it then completely 
awakes and enters upon the habits usual to an active state 
of being. 
A hibernating dormouse can always be aroused, and its 
complete awakening requires about twenty minutes. When 
again left alone, however, it soon relapses into lethargy; but 
sometimes the disturbance to its system is fatal, especially if 
the change be too rapid, as when heat is too suddenly applied 
to it. During the few days just before and after hibernation, 
it is in a constant state of transformation from complete 
torpidity’ to the most lively activity; and if kept warm in 
captivity this uncertain state can be much prolonged even in 
winter. But whenever it falls asleep, even in summer, its 
temperature drops and it feels cold to the touch. Mr Forrest ° 
found the temperature of summer somnolence only 80° F., 
as against 98° F.° during activity. 
The fate of the last litter of young is an interesting point 
in the animal’s economy ; newly born litters may be found 
1 Meade-Waldo, WS., Millais. 
2 As observed by ees Spallanzan in 1807 (ii., 216-221 and 222-236) for this 
species and others. 
3 Douglas English, Some Smaller British Mammals, undated, 78. 
4 sth December, dormice active (Steele Elliott, Journ. Birmingham Nat. Hist. and 
Phil. Soc., 1896—unpaged reprint) ; any found in an active state during winter are 
instances of spasmodic awakening. 
5 Hence it may defecate during hibernation (Adams). 
® One slept continuously for six months and twenty-three days ; another, with one 
interruption only, for six months and nineteen days (Rabus, of. c#¢. supra, p. 361). 
7 Gordon Dalgliesh took one “in a complete state of torpor” (Zoologist, 1907, 
299- 302) on 9th May 1907. 8 MS. 
9 g2°-94° F.—R. I. Pocock, Zacyc. Brit, 11th ed., art. “ Hibernation,” 442. 
