70 WOODLAND CREATURES 



temperature will rouse one of these creatures, 

 just as a fall will send it back to unconsciousness. 

 This activity is bad enough when there is plenty 

 of food at hand, but in a wild state a warm spell 

 has often disastrous effects on the dormouse 

 population. I have noticed repeatedly that a 

 mild winter is invariably followed by a scarcity 

 of these animals, and vice versa with a hard one. 

 The very severe winter of 1916-17, which was 

 so hard that many species of birds were almost 

 wiped out, had not only no ill-effects on the 

 dormouse population, but the reverse. I never 

 saw so many dormice, or found so many of their 

 nests, as I did during the following summer. 

 That year the dormice must have enjoyed an 

 uninterrupted slumber from the end of September 

 to late in April. Now the season 1919-20 was 

 a very mild one, it being a most open winter, 

 but during the summer of 1920 I never saw a sign 

 or trace of a dormouse in any one of the usual 

 favourite spots. The dormice seemed to have 

 vanished completely. I believe this fluctuation 

 in numbers is entirely a matter of weather; a 

 hard winter will be followed by a good dormouse 

 summer, and a mild one by the disappearance 

 of the mice. When one remembers that this 

 mouse is practically entirely dependent on its 

 internal stores of fat, and that these stores are 

 consumed much more rapidly during its periods of 

 activity, one can readily comprehend that a mild 

 winter, with continuous excursions on the part of 

 the dormice, is likely to be disastrous to them. 



