MUSCARDINUS 351 



both more sedentary and more sluggish, and the European 

 forms, at least, enter a deep hibernatory sleep in winter. 



Genus MUSCARDINUS. 



1829. MUSCARDINUS, Jakob Kaup, System der Europiiische Thierwelt, i., 139 ; 

 based on Mus avellanarius of Linnaeus. 



Synonymy and classification : — The genus presents an instance 

 of the modern tendency of restriction. It now includes only the 

 common M. avellanarius of England, with its representatives 

 in continental Europe ; the larger dormice of Europe having 

 been segregated in the genera Glis, Eliomys, and Dyromys. 



The genus is poor in species and restricted in distribution. 

 It ranges only from Wales to Asia Minor, and from central 

 Sweden to the northern coasts of the Mediterranean, with 

 Sicily ; it is not known from the Iberian or Balkan Peninsulas. 



Four species are recognised, including M. avellanarius. My 

 M.pulcher {Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., November 1898, 423), 

 a brilliantly coloured form,^ with a spot of cream-colour in 

 front of each ear, is found in Italy from Sienna to Rome and 

 Naples. Dehne's M. speciosus {Algemeine deutsche Naturhist. 

 Zeitung, Dresden, N.F., ii., 1856, 180), described from Tursi in 

 Basilicata, south Italy, may represent a form identical with 

 Sicilian specimens, which are remarkable for their deep colour, 

 but are very little known ; or it may prove identical with 

 pulcher, in which case that name must give place to speciosus. 

 M. trapezius, described by Miller (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 

 January 1908, 69) from Khotz, near Trebizond, Turkey in 

 Asia, has small, nearly circular auditory bullae ; it is probably 

 the form recorded by Nehring from Scutari, and is stated 

 by Satunin not to reach Transcaucasia. 



The genus was made known from the post- Pliocene of 

 Germany by Nehring [Beitr. z. Anthrop. u. Urgesch. Bayerns, 

 1879, ii., 234); in Britain it has been found only in the 

 Pliocene, Hinton having seen a single tooth from the Forest 

 Bed ; and it is represented by M. sansaniensis ( Lartert) in the 

 middle Miocene of continental Europe (see Forsyth Major, 



^ As noticed by Brookes, Natural History of Quadrupeds, 1763, 293. 



