ZAPUS HUDSONIUS. 1 97 



hives of bees, in which they form for themselves, a warm and com- 

 fortable 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 sometimes devour the greater part of the 

 honey of a hive. 



" The circumstance just mentioned is not altogether uninterest- 

 ing. 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 character. The same 

 species becomes torpid in one country and not in another. Nay, 

 different individuals of the same species become torpid, or continue 

 awake, in the same neighborhood, and even on the same farm." * 



On the 6th of June, 1797, Major-General Thomas Davies pre- 

 sented, before the Linnsean Society of London, " An account of the 

 Jumping Mouse of Canada," which he supposed to be an unde- 

 scribed species. This account was published in the Linnsean 

 Transactions for i 798. Hence, though not read till more than a 

 year and a half after Dr. Barton had presented his paper before 

 the American Philosophical Society, it appeared in print before the 

 publication of the latter. 



General Davies gives a figure of the animal in the dormant state, 

 observing that the specimen " was found by some workmen, in 

 digging the foundation for a summer house, in a gentleman's 

 garden about two miles from Quebec, in the latter end of May, 

 1787. It was discovered enclosed in a ball of clay, about the size 

 of a cricket ball, nearly an inch in thickness, perfectly smooth 

 within, and about twenty inches under ground. The man who 

 first discovered it, not knowing what it was, struck the ball with 

 his spade, by which means it was broken to pieces, or the ball also 

 would have been presented to me. The drawing will perfectly 



* Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. VI, 1804, pp. 143-144. 



