258 NATURAL HISTORY. 



cold ceases. A few degrees of heat above the tenth 

 or eleventh degree are sufficient to re-animate these 

 creatures ; and if they are kept in a very warm place 

 during the winter, they do not become torpid. 



Though in this torpid state, they are without the 

 smallest motion, though their eyes are shut, and they 

 seem to be deprived of all use of the senses, they yet 

 feel pain when it is very acute. This they testify by 

 a movement of contraction, as also by a little hollow 

 cry, which they even repeat several times. I am in- 

 clined to believe, that it is not from a too great waste 

 of substance that they perish in long winters, since in 

 autumn they are excessively fat, and on their reviving 

 in spring, they are found to have still remained so. 

 This abundance of fatisan internal nourishment, which 

 is sufficient to support them, and to supply what they 

 lose by perspiration. 



The flesh of the fat squirrel is not unlike that of the 

 guinea pig : they were considered as a luxury by the 

 Itomans, who reared great numbers of them. Like 

 the common squirrel, this animal lives in forests, climbs 

 to the tops of trees, and leaps from branch to branch. 

 This it does less nimbly indeed than the squirrel, whose 

 legs are longer, whose belly is by no means so big, and 

 \vhich is remarkable for being meagre. Nuts, however, 

 and other wild fruits, form its usual nourishment. It 

 likewise eats little birds which it takes in the nests. It 

 does not, like the squirrel, nestle in the upper parts of 

 trees, but makes a bed of moss for itself in the trunks 

 of those which are hollow. It also shelters itself in 

 the clefts of rocks, and always shews a preference for 

 dry places. It avoids moisture, it drinks little, rarely 

 descends to the ground, and, unlike the squirrel, which 

 is easily tamed, remains always wild. The species is 



