CYNEGETICA, II. 573-591 



the villain Cats " which attack the nests of domestic 

 fowls ; and leave thou the tiny, tender, weakUng 

 Dormice.'' These indeed remain with eyes closed all 

 the winter season, drunk with sleep. Hapless crea- 

 tures ! to take no food ! not to behold the Ught ! 

 In their lairs, so deep asleep are they, they lie as 

 dead and a wintry lot is theirs. But when the eyes 

 of spring first smile and the flowers in the meadows 

 newly bloom, they stir their sluggish bodies from 

 their secret lair and open their eyes and behold the 

 hght of the sun, and with new delight bethink them 

 of sweet food, and once more become alive and 

 Dormice once again. 



I leave too the shaggy race of the feeble Squirrel," 

 who in the fiery season of midsummer erects his tail 

 to shelter his self-roofed dwelling '^ ; even as the 

 Peacocks * shelter their own beautiful form, their 

 splendid form with many -pictured back : than whom 

 the wisdom of Zeus hath devised for men naught 



English dormouse we did not find (p. 122) " : Plin. viii. 224 

 conditi etiam hi cubant ; rursus aestate iuvenescunt ; Mart, 

 iii. 58. 36 somniculosos glires ; id. xiii. 59 Tota mihi dor- 

 raitur hieraps et pinguior illo Tempore sum quo me nil nisi 

 somnus alit. 



' Sciuj^s vulgaris L., var. niger, M.G. ^ep^epir^a. " De 

 I'ecureuil il n'a ete observe jusqu'a present en Grece que 

 la variete au pelage noiratre. II habite les forets de sapins 

 des montagnes du Nord de la Grece, ou il a ete trouve 

 par le Dr. Kriiper surtout au mont Parnasse, au mt. Velouchi 

 et au mt. Olympe de Thessalie. Mr. A. de Hoeslin m'a 

 assure de I'avoir vu dans les forets de sapins du mt. 

 Menalos en Arcadie " (Bik. p. 13). 



■* Ael. V. 21 (V ibpa ffepeiij) <TKeiri)v olKodtv koj. ovk -QTrifi^viiv 

 oiiSe odveiav vapex^TaL ; Plin. viii. 138 Provident tempestatem 

 et sciuri obturatisque qua spiraturus est ventus cavernis 

 ex alia parte aperiunt fores. De cetero ipsis villosior cauda 

 pro tegumento est. * Paco cristntax, M.G. ■wa'yQivL. 



107 



