THE MOUSE FAMILY. 297 



THE DORMOUSE. 



The Common Dormouse or Sleep-mouse (Muscadinus- 

 avellanarius), whose soft fur may come into favor with 

 the demand for mole skin, is confined to Europe, where 

 its range extends from Norway and the British Isles to 

 Northern Italy and Turkey, Galacia, Hungary and Tran- 

 sylvania. It is arboreal and in some of its other habits 

 like the Squirrels, but differs from them in being ex- 

 clusively nocturnal. It is generally found in hedgerows 

 or thickets, and hibernates five or six months during the 

 winter in a nest made of twigs, leaves and grass. It 

 feeds 011 nuts, acorns, corn and wild berries, and is said 

 to extract the kernels from hazel nuts without removing 

 them from their stems. 



The young which are usually produced in the spring, 

 four or five to the litter, are born blind and naked, in a 

 nest placed a yard or so above the ground. There are 

 several species of this little animal. 



The common Dormouse is about the size of an ordinary 

 mouse, and has a thick, compact body, with a somewhat 

 pointed muzzle on the large head. The tail is long and 

 bushy, and the color of the fur is a tawny hue on the 

 upper parts, but yellowish beneath, with a patch of white 

 on the throat and upper part of the chest. 



The Squirrel Tail Dormouse of Southern Europe 

 (M.-glis) is the Siebenschlafer of the Germans, and the 

 loir of the French. It is larger than the common dor- 

 mouse, and has a thicker, bushier tail ; and the heavy 

 soft fur is of an ashy grey color shaded with dark brown 

 above, and white on the under parts and inside of the 

 limbs. The tip of the snout and part of the throat are 

 white. 



The Tree Dormouse (M-dryas), found in Siberia as well 

 as parts of Southern Europe, is smaller in size than the 

 foregoing but larger than the Garden Dormouse. Its 

 habitat extends into Africa, and it was known by the 

 ancient Romans as Nitela, and is called lerot in France, 

 and the Gartenschlafer in Germany. The Painted Dor- 

 mouse of Eastern Persia (M.-pictus) is a brightly colored 

 form closely allied to the (M.-dryas). 



