42 THE BRITISH NATURE BOOK 



nate at all, nor does it store up food if there is plenty to be obtained, either from 

 human habitations or from the pine woods close at hand. 



5. The Common Dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius). This small rodent 

 is not unlike a " toy " squirrel, with somewhat similar habits. Its body is 

 about 3 inches long ; it has a bushy tail, though not so thick as the squirrel's ; 

 very large, bead-like eyes, and in colour is light fawn, fading into white or 

 yellow-white on throat and under parts. 



The feet and this is a noteworthy characteristic are padded, to stand 

 the shock of a big jump (a dormouse will leap six feet upwards as well as 

 downwards), or to move absolutely silently from place to place. 



The young are born in the spring, about May (blind and helpless), the 

 nest being in a hole in a bank or tree, or sometimes in a disused birds' nest. 

 Occasionally a second litter is born in the year. In the autumn the dormouse 





constructs a winter nest. If it is set in a bush or hedge (and not a hole or hollow), 

 it is a beautiful, ball-like structure, 6 or 8 inches across, of interwoven blades 

 of grass, with no visible entrance. Here, at the end of October, the dormouse, 

 grown enormously fat, and having stored up in the nest a supply of hazel 

 nuts, goes to sleep for the winter, coiled into a complete circle, with tail 

 over face. On a specially warm day in December it may wake up and eat 

 a little, but generally it requires a good deal of warmth to waken it into 

 activity. 



Its food consists of corn or any grain, hazel nuts, acorns, the buds and 

 tender shoots of young plants, some fruit, and also a considerable number of 

 various grubs and larvae. It will also take birds' eggs. It makes a delightful 

 pet, is easily tamed and fed, and is a most cleanly animal ; but let it escape 

 to the garden, and it is off into the bushes or the hedge with extraordinary 

 rapidity.' 



