366 MUSCARDINID^— MUSCARDINUS 



for years, and their nests were always placed within loo yards 

 of a previous one. Mr Forrest has observed^ the method of 

 building in a captive. Seizing each piece of grass by the 

 middle in its mouth, it dived into the nest-box, and, turning 

 over repeatedly, laid the bent round the cavity, at the same 

 time smoothing it and rounding it outwards. 



It is generally stated that there are most frequently four 

 young, but since there are eight teats, larger numbers may be 

 expected. A litter of seven, still blind, was found on 8th 

 October 191 2 in Mr Cocks's wood at Skirmett, Buckingham- 

 shire,^ and others of six ^ and five * have been reported ; some- 

 times there are only two young, and probably the earlier litters 

 are smaller than those of the late summer. 



There is some dispute about the sexual season. One view 

 is that, like hedgehogs, dormice are polyoestrous (as they 

 certainly are in captivity), with two breeding seasons, a litter of 

 young being born early in the summer, followed by a second In 

 the autumn. Thus Thomas Bell ^ received, from one locality 

 In September, an adult, one about half-grown, and three very 

 young, which he judged to be not older than a fortnight or 

 three weeks. Messrs Cocks and Forrest have voiced another 

 view, namely, that autumnal litters are the rule. In this they 

 are partially supported by Monsieur H. Gadeau de Kervllle, 

 who states that In Normandy births take place habitually in 

 August, with, perhaps, in favourable seasons, a first litter in 

 June. Against this, Monsieur Lataste received a Swiss female 

 which bore young on ist June 1882, and there are British 

 records for various dates from the middle of May^ to 

 October ; so that it Is possible that the breeding season may 

 last throughout the period of activity. In captivity, when 



' Zoologist, 1901. 2 ]^s.; the eyes had opened by 13th October. 



^ Half-grown, near Basingstoke, Hampshire, September 1906 (Owen Jones, Field, 

 22nd September 1906, 540). 



* In nest, Shropshire, 15th September 1903 (Forrest, MS.). ' Ed. 2, 284. 



" Wright [MS., per Adams) found a litter supposed to be two or three weeks old 

 on and June 1909, i.e., born 12th to 19th May, and a Northamptonshire nest contain- 

 ing two young on sth June ; as their eyes were open on the nth they must have been 

 born, according to Lataste's observations quoted below, about eighteen days earlier, 

 or on the 24th of May. In the Forest of Guines, Pas de Calais, France, Oldfield 

 Thomas took five blind and naked young on 20th May 1894 ; see Barrett-Hamilton, 

 Proc. Zool. Soc. (London), 6th February 1900, 86. A midsummer instance for young 

 with closed eyes is 26th July (Heatley Noble, in lit.). 



