68 WOODLAND CREATURES 



I never see a dormouse eating without thinking 

 of my first pet dormouse, brought me by a farm 

 labourer who had caught it. Childlike, I was 

 hugely delighted with it, managed to get a cage, 

 of a sort, and took the mouse in it to an empty 

 room that I called my " museum/' In this room 

 was a collection of odds and ends, some fossils 

 and other stones that I had picked up, some birds' 

 eggs in a wooden case, etc. Among this rubbish 

 the dormouse was deposited in its cage. So far 

 as I can remember it was a makeshift arrangement, 

 devised by the man who caught the mouse, with 

 the help of a couple of cigar boxes. At any rate 

 the dormouse showed its good sense by immediately 

 getting out. Hanging against the wall was a 

 nest of the long-tailed tit (given me by the same 

 man that had caught the dormouse) and the 

 mouse evidently spied the one comfortable sleep- 

 ing place in the room, for there it was found 

 asleep next morning. In the absence of suitable 

 accommodation it was allowed to stay where it 

 was, and to have the run of the room. It got 

 very tame ; every evening it would come out, 

 climb up on to a picture frame, and there take 

 nuts from one's fingers, but alas ! one day some- 

 one left the window open, and the dormouse 

 vanished, never to be seen again. Pet dormice are 

 clever at escaping, for, despite their sleepy and 

 indolent looks, there is no small mammal that 

 is quicker to take advantage of any chance of 

 getting away. One of mine, which got out and 

 disappeared for a week, reappeared in a rather 



