THE DORMOUSE OR SLEEPER 355 



" Common Dormouse," and by Bewick " The Lesser Dormouse," the 

 latter, having regard to continental species, being a quite appropriate 

 name. Pennant calls it " The Dormouse." 



Local names (non-Celtic) : — Chestlecrumb of South Devon {Dial. 

 Did.); derrymouse of Devon (Bellamy), dorymouse of Hampshire and 

 Cornwall {Dial. Diet.), and dozing-mouse (Forbes), are no doubt forms 

 of ' dormouse ' ; seven-sleeper of Warwick, Hampshire, Somerset, and 

 Devon, a term also applied to any hibernating animals, as bats, and to 

 moths {Dial Dict\v4\'Ca. the common German name for the Fat Dormouse, 

 Der Siebensckldfer, had its origin in " The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus," 

 a popular legend of the Middle Ages ; shrew of West Yorkshire 

 {Dial Diet) ; sleeper of Ray (1693), ^^^ of many districts, e.g., Shetland, 

 Yorkshire, Northampton, Shropshire, Hertford, East Anglia, Kent, 

 Buckinghamshire, Sussex, occurs also diSslapere {Dial Diet.) ; sleep-mouse 

 of Berkshire, Hampshire {Dial. Diet.), and Surrey (Adams, MS.) ; sleepy- 

 mouse of Buckinghamshire (Cocks, MS.). 



(Celtic) : — Although the animal is unknown in Ireland, Scotland, or 

 the Isle of Man, the dictionaries give a number of names for it in the 

 local dialects. These are either compound, such as the Manx eadlag- 

 gkeurree=' winter -sleeper,' or general names for wild mice. There is 

 naturally much confusion over the names of small mammals, the distinc- 

 tions between which are imperfectly known ; for instance, the Welsh 

 pathew is also applied to other mice (Caton Haigh ; Forrest). 



Welsh -.—pathew ; cf cyn dewed d pathew = ' as fat as a dormouse,' 

 and nid esmwyth ond pathew = ' nothing so sleek as a dormouse ' ; bather. 



Cornish : — bat (Pryce). 



Distribution : — This Dormouse has a rather restricted distribution, 

 being known only from about 58° N. lat. in wooded districts of Sweden 

 to the Alps, and from Wales at least to Galicia. It is not found in 

 the Iberian (Cabrera, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., February 19CO, 194) 

 nor Balkan Peninsulas, and in Italy, Sicily, and Asia Minor is repre- 

 sented by other closely allied species. It ascends to 2000 feet in the 

 Hartz Mountains (Blasius), and to over 4500 in the Alps (Fatio) ; Hun- 

 garian specimens in the British Museum were taken at about 3000 feet. 



Where there is plenty of undergrowth, it is a common animal in 

 England, south of the Midlands, including the Isle of Wight. It is 

 widely, although locally, distributed in Wales, the western English 

 counties, and much of the north of England, but is rare in the Midlands 

 and strangely absent from some of the counties of the eastern plain. 

 It does not reach the Scottish border, and the northern limit of 

 its range is probably the county boundary between Durham and 

 Northumberland. Even in districts where it is common, it capriciously 

 affects certain localities to the entire exclusion of others in the near 

 neighbourhood. Local decrease has been reported in Middlesex 



