THE DORMOUSE OR SLEEPER 357 



met with and may be common (Coward). It is well known in all 

 the western counties, including Monmouth (Evansen, MS. ; Phillips, 

 MS.), excepting the hilly and north-western portions and the marshy 

 pastures bordering the Severn, both of which districts are quite 

 unsuitable to its wants (Banks, MS.). It is frequent in Stafford 

 (Masefield, MS) and Shropshire (Forrest), as it must also be in the 

 parts of Leicester, Derby, Warwick, and Worcester adjacent to Sutton 

 Coldfield, Birmingham, for in that locality Steele Elliot writes of it as a 

 familiar animal ; but there are other records for these counties and 

 for Hereford (Rope). 



In Wales, including Anglesey (Forrest), there is no county with a 

 negative record, so that the animal is widely distributed. But, while 

 scarce or very rare in Carnarvon (Forrest), it seems to be most frequent 

 in the north and east, as it is common in Flint, Denbigh, Merioneth, 

 and Montgomery (Forrest). Cardigan (Phillips, Zoologist, 1885, 258; 

 Salter, Journ. cit., 1903, 104), Radnor, and Glamorgan (Rope) may 

 possibly be classed with the last four, as the records, although definite 

 and undoubted, do not seem to be indicative of careful search. In 

 Brecon and Carmarthen it is found very sparingly, especially in the 

 latter (Phillips, op. cit.). In North Pembroke it has been taken by 

 Bowen at Velindre, Nevern, as I am informed independently by Mills 

 and M. J. Lewis. 



In the north of England it is generally but very thinly distributed 

 in Yorkshire (Roebuck, Field, Jth April 1884, 488, corroborated by 

 more recent observers). Approaching the northern limit of its range 

 the records are meagre, and in Durham it reaches its most northern 

 known habitat in England, as recorded by Mennell and Perkins in 

 1864. They wrote of it as of rare occurrence, but taken occasionally 

 in the valley of the Derwent at Gibside, Winlaton Mill, and near 

 Ebchester. More recently a pair were observed at Headlam, between 

 Darlington and Barnard Castle in the south of the county (Rope). 

 For Northumberland there is no record, but the localities cited above 

 for Durham lie so close to the county boundary that the mouse may 

 possibly be found within its limits. In Lancashire the Dormouse is 

 distributed locally in the west and north, Macpherson's correspondents 

 having met with it spasmodically in a few of the more densely planted 

 districts from the Rusland Valley to the slopes of the fells at the 

 southern end of Windermere ; and similar information was supplied by 

 Petty {Naturalist, 1889, 52). In 1861 it was not infrequent near 

 Kendal, but Macpherson was unable to trace it to the east either of 

 Westmorland or Cumberland. In the latter county it is found chiefly 

 in the south, and was first recorded from the Ullswater district by 

 Heysham, and later by Hodgson. Both Hodgson and Johnson took it 

 at Dalston, near Carlisle, about 1880 (Macpherson). Dalston is of 



