NSAAL HIS 
“Snes 
THE ZOOLOGIST. 
THIRD SERIES. 
Vou. IX.] JUNE, 1885. [No. 102. 
ON THE RANGE OF THE DORMOUSE IN 
ENGLAND AND WALES. 
By G. T. Roper. 
In the following pages an attempt has been made to arrange 
the numerous notes relating to this subject, which appeared at 
intervals in the Natural History columns of ‘ The Field ’ last year, 
in a more compact form, and one more convenient for reference ; 
in addition to which I have been enabled, through the kindness 
of several well-known naturalists, resident in various parts of 
England and Wales, to add the result of their valuable observa- 
tions, obligingly communicated by letter. 
The Dormouse being, from the nature of its food and habits, 
essentially a dweller in woods, thickets, and plantations, is 
consequently most numerous in well-wooded districts, its 
comparative abundance or scarcity being regulated perhaps as 
much by the character of the country in this respect as by 
climatic influences. A marked scarcity of this little rodent is 
observable in the two most easterly counties of England, viz., 
Norfolk and Suffolk, and apparently the same may be said of a 
great part of Lincolnshire, its presence having been detected, as 
far as I am aware, only in a few isolated spots. This it seems 
hard to account for, unless occasioned by the cold and cutting 
east winds to which that part of the country is exposed. Yet the 
Occurrence of the species much - further north, as in East 
Yorkshire and Durham, seems to refute that supposition ; 
possibly a thorough search in likely-looking spots might, in some 
cases, reveal the hitherto unsuspected presence of this shy and 
ZOOLOGIST.—JUNE, 1885. R 
