MAMMALIA—LEMMING. DORMOUSE. 235 
Five or six young ones are produced at each litter, and the female brings 
forth several times in the course of a year. They sometimes litter while 
emigrating, and they have been seen carrying some of their offspring in 
their mouths, and others on their backs. 
As for the rest, the male is generally larger and more beautifully spotted 
than the female; they goin droves into the water; but no sooner does a 
storm of wind arise, than they are all drowned. The flesh of the lemmings 
is horrid food, and their skin, although covered with a very beautiful fur, is 
of too little consistence to be serviceable. 
HUDSON’S BAY LEMMING.! 
THIs curious animal was first described by Foster, and afterwards more 
fully by Pallas. It inhabits Labrador, Hudson’s Straits, and the coast from 
Churchill to the extremity of Melville peninsula, as well as the islands of 
the Polar cea, visited by Captain Parry. Its habits are still imperfectly 
known. In summer, according to Hearne, it burrows under stones, in dry 
ridges; and Captain Sabine informs us, that in winter it resides in a nest of 
moss, on the surface of the ground, rarely going abroad. The former author 
also acquaints us that it is so easily tamed, that if taken even when full 
grown, it will in a day or two be perfectly reconciled, very fond of being 
handled, and will creep, of its own accord, into its master’s neck or 
bosom. There are three other different species of the lemming, belonging 
to America. 
THE FAT SQUIREBREL, OR DORMOUSE2 
Or this kind of animal, we know three species, which, like the marmot, 
- sleep during the winter; namely, the fat squirrel, the garden squirrel, and 
the common dormouse. Many authors have confounded these species 
together, though they are all three very different, and of consequence easily 
known and distinguished. 
The fat squirrel is nearly of the size of the common European squirrel ; 
and, like it, its tail is covered with long hair. It is of a pale ash color on 
the upper parts of the body, and whitish on the under. It is without pro- 
priety, that the term sleep has been applied to the state of these animals 
1 Lemmus Hudsonius, Desm. 
2 Myoxus glis, Lix. The genus Myorus has two upper and two lower incisors; eight 
upper and eight lower molars. Molars simple, with transverse projecting lines; fore 
feet with four toes, and the rudiment of a thumb; tail very long, round, with hair tufted 
ot depressed. 
