A N A T U R A L I S T. 63 



meadows. It may perhaps puzzle some to imagine 

 how they subsist through the severities of winter, 

 when vegetation is at rest, and the earth generally 

 frozen. Here we find another occasion to admire 

 the all-perfect designs of the awful Author of 

 nature, who has endowed a great number of ani- 

 mals with the faculty of retiring into the earth, 

 and passing whole months in a state of repose so 

 complete, as to allow all the functions of the body 

 to be suspended, until the returning warmth of the 

 spring calls them forth to renewed activity and 

 enjoyment. The jumping mouse, when the chill 

 weather begins to draw nigh, digs down about six 

 or eight inches into the soil, and there forms a 

 little globular cell, as much larger than his own 

 body as will allow a sufficient covering of fine grass 

 to be introduced. This being obtained, he contrives 

 to coil up his body and limbs in the centre of the 

 soft dry grass, so as to form a complete ball ; and so 

 compact is this, that, when taken out with the torpid 

 animal, it may be rolled across a floor without injury. 

 In this snug cell, which is soon filled up and closed 

 externally, the jumping mouse securely abides through 

 all the frosts and storms of winter, needing neither 

 food nor fuel, being utterly quiescent, and appa- 

 rently dead, though susceptible at any time of re- 

 animation, by being very gradually stimulated by 

 light and heat. 



The little burrow under examination, when called 

 to observe the jumping mouse, proved to be made 

 by the merry musicians of the meadows, the field- 



