122 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



itself in condition in winter by waking occasionally, and 

 taking food at intervals. 



The Garden Dormouse, or Lerot, very much resembles 

 the last-mentioned species, but is smaller, the body thicker, 

 the muzzle more pointed, and the tail covered with scat- 

 tered red-gray hairs, and terminated with a tuft of long 

 black hair ; it is reddish gray above, and white underneath ; 

 the stomach also is neither so large nor so elongated as in 

 the Fat Dormouse, and it differs also in some other anato- 

 mical distinctions. 



The Garden Dormouse, as its name imports, inhabits gar- 

 dens, and sometimes finds its way into houses. It makes its 

 bed in a hole, in walls, mounts only the espalier fruit trees, 

 and selects the best and choicest fruit. It is sometimes also 

 found in the clefts of trees, in old orchards, on a bed of 

 moss and leaves. It hybernates, and eight or ten are not 

 unfrequently found together rolled up in the midst of a 

 magazine of nuts. 



The Garden Dormouse produces five or six at a birth in 

 summer, which grow rapidly, though they do not generate 

 till the following summer. They are not eatable like the 

 Loir, and give a scent like that of the common rat. This 

 species is proper to the temperate parts of the European 

 continent. 



The Common Dormouse (Mus Avellanarius Nina, 

 M. Muscardinus, Gm.) is smaller than the Lerot or Garden 

 Dormouse, and is but little larger than the mouse ; the 

 head is short, the muzzle less elongated, and the eyes 

 larger. The tail is furnished with hair, ranged on each 

 side like that of the Loir, but much shorter. This animal 

 is best distinguished from the two preceding by the charac- 

 ter of the tail ; all the upper part of the body is brownish 

 yellow mixed with white, the under parts are light, with 

 the throat nearly white. 



This species is never found in houses, and but rarely in 



